The Prime Minister of Japan, Mr. Yukio Hatoyama with the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, in New Delhi on December 29, 2009.

New Delhi: Prime Minister of India, H.E. Dr. Manmohan Singh and Prime Minister of Japan, H.E. Dr. Yukio Hatoyama held the Annual Bilateral Summit in New Delhi on 29 December 2009. They discussed bilateral as well as regional and global issues.The two Prime Ministers reaffirmed that India and Japan as partners which share common values and strategic interests, will develop the Strategic and Global Partnership further for the deepening of their bilateral relations as well as peace and prosperity of the region and the world.

The two Prime Ministers reiterated the importance of Annual Summits between them. They also expressed satisfaction at the deepening of the Annual Strategic Dialogue between the Foreign Ministers, as well as other policy dialogues at Ministerial level. They welcomed the desire expressed by the two Defence Ministers in Tokyo in November 2009 to hold Annual Defence Ministerial Meetings to enhance dialogue and exchanges in the defence field. The two Prime Ministers expressed their satisfaction at the finalization of the Action Plan with specific measures to advance security cooperation based on the Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation between India and Japan issued in October 2008. The two Prime Ministers committed to enhancing the security cooperation between India and Japan according to the Action Plan, and to deepen their discussion through the newly-established framework at the Subcabinet / Senior Official - level 2 plus 2 dialogue, which was endorsed in the Action Plan.

The two Prime Ministers took note of the current status of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) / Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) negotiations and instructed their relevant officials to accelerate the negotiations by energetically working towards resolving the remaining issues with a view to concluding a mutually beneficial agreement at the earliest. The two Prime Ministers shared the view that economic relations between India and Japan would develop even further as a result of the conclusion of the EPA/CEPA.

New Delhi: In an effort to achieve the target of attracting $50 billion (nearly Rs 2,34,100 crore) foreign capital inflows into the country by 2012, the government today constituted a high-level committee of state industry ministers that would seek to create proper road maps for states and their industrial development.

Anand Sharma, Commerce and Industry Minister

This comes in the wake of a meeting held between the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and states trade ministers last month. The committee would comprise industry ministers from Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan and Haryana. The main responsibility of the committee would be to formulate a states-specific investment promotion programme. Besides, it would also create a single window mechanism for faster clearance of licence requirement and establishment.

The committee would also prepare guidelines for the creation of an industrial land bank consisting of available waste and fallow lands, while leaving aside productive agricultural land as far as possible.
Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma had said that both the Centre and states should together aim at making the country investor friendly. He has set the target of achieving $50 billion foreign direct investment annually by 2012 and $100 billion by 2017. With respect to the development of special economic zones (SEZs), he had asked the states to issue notifications for exemption of state and other local taxes. He also said that the government must take adequate steps to provide proper connectivity and infrastructure such as water and drainage connection for the SEZs.

Kolkata/Bhubaneswar: Foreign tourist arrivals in India in the peak tourism season of 2009-10 is set to witness a growth of 25 per cent over the same period of 2008-09. After battling a phase of slowdown which began from the second half of 2008-09, the economy is on the recovery track, bringing cheer to the travel and tourism industry in the country.

he peak tourism season in the country begins from November and continues up to February. The tour operators have witnessed a 20 per cent jump in bookings in the months of November and December 2009. Vijay Thakur, president, Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO), “India is set to witness a growth of 25 per cent in the peak tourism season of 2009-10 in terms of foreign tourist arrivals. The growth in inbound tourist arrivals to the country would come on the back of the revival in the economy.” To give a further boost to the tourist arrivals, IATO has drawn up plans to hold roadshows in USA, UK, European Union nations and Australia in 2010 to hard sell India as a tourist hub. “We have already given a proposal to the Union ministry of tourism for conducting these roadshows to pull the foreign tourists to India. This time, we are trying to bring in more long haul foreign tourists”, Thakur said.

IATO had earlier sought reduction in the tax component on the tariff of tour packages of international tourists to boost India's inbound tourist inflow. At present, the various taxes like luxury tax and service tax account for 40-45 per cent of the cost of tour packages for the international tourists. IATO is in favour of bringing down the share of taxes in cost of the tour packages, designed for the international tourists, to 15 per cent. The association had also demanded that the luxury tax should be levied on the actual tariff of the hotels and not on the printed tariff. India has targeted to attract 10 million foreign tourists by 2010, almost double the figure which the country achieved in 2008. The country recorded foreign tourist arrivals of 5.37 million in 2008 and earned foreign exchange worth Rs 50,730 crore.

Confidence levels among senior business executives in Mumbai and Shanghai are so high that they are leaving their counterparts in New York and London far behind, with significant implications for the post-recession global economy. With India having emerged relatively unscathed from the recession, more than 90 percent of senior business figures in Mumbai are more confident now than at the beginning of the year, according to a study published on December 14.

Ever more remarkably, 92 percent of Mumbai’s business bosses are confident in the economic outlook for the next 12 months, says the study by the London-based international law firm Eversheds. The findings of the research, conducted among 600 senior executives in London, Mumbai, New York, Shanghai and the United Arab Emirates, show that “the world order for financial centres is changing”. “This is potentially very significant. When you have 90 percent of respondents in Mumbai and Shanghai saying they are very confident about the future, and only 22 percent saying so in London, it feeds into the plans people will make,” said Eversheds chairman Alan Jenkins.

“Indian business are confident and are looking to the future, making plans for both within India and globally. I don’t get the same sense in London,” he said, adding that there will be “considerable pressure” on London’s place as the pre-eminent centre for global financial services in 10 years’ time. “There are real question marks about how financial services are going to grow in London.” According to the Eversheds research, 87 percent of business leaders across the globe said that the recession had significantly changed the structure of the world economy and that established financial centres faced a growing challenge from the emerging economies of the East. The Boom or Gloom’ research reveals that the majority of business leaders are more confident than at the start of 2009. But when it comes to confidence in the economy over the next twelve months, there is a clear East-West divide.