BANGALORE: After setting up large corporations in the Indian market, a high-growth province in Japan is now looking to make inroads into the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) space here.
Mie, one of the 47 prefectures of Japan, is looking for ‘support’ companies in Karnataka. Over 250 of the 1,000 Japanese companies present in India are based in Karnataka. Terming his visit as the ‘top batter’, Eikei Suzuki, Governor of Mie prefecture, told reporters here, “We have signed an MoU with Karnataka for industrial cooperation.”
Emphasising the potential for cooperation in automobiles, IT/BT, ICT and electronics among other sectors, he said they were looking at help to promote Japanese SMEs set up facilities in India and vice-versa. He said SMEs could help support the larger companies here. “The incentive for a company from outside (another country) is double if they set up a facility in Mie prefecture,” the Governor said.
Large corporations such as Toyota, Honda, Toshiba and Fujitsu come from Mie prefecture, Suzuki said. The MoU will conduct a survey of sectors here to identify strengths and shortcomings in Karnataka. They are also looking at exchange of personnel and workforce between the two regions. However, there are no Indian companies present in the prefecture currently, he said.
Karnataka’s Chief Secretary will lead a delegation to Mie prefecture later this month, he added.
