Indo Japan chamber, Yokohama India centre sign MoU

KOCHI: The Indo Japan Chamber of Commerce Kerala (INJACK) today signed an MoU with Yokohama India Centre (YIC) for mutual cooperation in promoting business between Kerala and Japan.

The signing ceremony was held during a video conference between officials of the two organisations at Nippon Kerala Centre in KINFRA Hi-Tech Park, Kalamassery, a release said.

Former IAS officer and INJACK President T Balakrishnan and Yoshihiro Nishida, Co-Chairman of Yokohama India Centre, signed the MoU.

INJACK is only the third organisation in India with which YIC has similar MOUs, the other two being Indian Merchants Chamber ( IMC) and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry ( Ficci).

Yokohama has a long history of doing business with India. It was in Yokohama that Indian merchants first entered Japan about 150 years ago and established their business bases. Since then Indian business presence in Yokohama has increased manifold and now several big Indian IT companies, including Infosys and TCS, have branches. Some like TVS have even manufacturing units there.

With signing of the MoU between INJACK and YIC, business cooperation in the SME sector is expected to get a boost, as the focus of INJACK is on developing business in the sector. INJACK has already identified 50 SMEs in and around Yokohama for business matching with SMEs in Kerala.

During the video conference, several areas, including IT, tourism, food processing and healthcare, with prospects of cooperation with Japan were proposed by INJACK officials.

Balakrishnan proposed partnerships between women entrepreneurs of Kerala and Japan in the SME sector.

A survey by a Japanese consultant to identify more specific areas of interest to Japanese entrepreneurs was also mooted.

A delegation of Japanese business persons is likely to visit Kerala early next year.