Karnataka to roll out red carpet for Japanese PM

George Iype in Bangalore

Undeterred by the sullied image that Bangalore received in the wake of forest bandit Veerappan's abduction of Kannada matinee idol Rajakumar, the Karnataka government is rolling out a red carpet for the Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori.

Though caught in the Veerappan-Rajakumar kidnap drama for the past three weeks, Chief Minister S M Krishna and his ministerial colleagues are preparing to showcase Bangalore as the best infotech city in Asia and present Karnataka as the right investment destination for Japanese companies.

Breaking the tradition of foreign prime ministers beginning their official visits from New Delhi, Mori -- the first Japanese prime minister to visit the country in 10 years -- will start his India tour from Bangalore on Monday by addressing the Indian industry captains and meeting the country's infotech czars.

A host of trade and infotech initiatives between India and Japan are expected to emerge from Mori's Bangalore visit. Chief Minister S M Krishna and his officials believe the Japanese prime minister's first-ever visit to the city will catapult Bangalore as the information technology capital of Asia.

"The Japanese prime minister's visit to Bangalore will reaffirm the city's position not just as the Silicon Valley of India, but of Asia. It is a great opportunity for us to develop an enduring relationship with Japan," the state industries minister R V Deshpande told rediff.com.

He said it is not the infotech sector alone that will benefit out of Mori's Bangalore visit. "We want to promote investment in core sectors of automobile, sericulture, infrastructure development and manufacturing with Japanese help," Deshpande said.

Already Japanese initiatives on key industrial sectors are on in Karnataka. For instance, phase-one trials of cultures of bivoltine evolved at the Silk Board's research centre at Mysore in collaboration with the Japanese international co-operation agency has started showing good results.

The Karnataka government, that had been left smarting when US President Bill Clinton chose to visit Hyderabad instead of Bangalore in March, claimed that Mori's trip to the city is comparable to Clinton's Hyderabad tour.

On the infotech front, Karnataka industries secretary B S Patil said that Japan wants to take advantage of Bangalore's growing global presence in IT. Officials hinted at the possibility of series of alliances emerging out of the Indian IT companies and Japanese firms in the wake of Mori's visit.

Moreover, talks are on between the Japanese and the Karnataka governments to jointly collaborate to set up something like the Singapore technology park in Bangalore.

The two companies that eagerly await Mori's visit to their headquarters are Infosys Technologies Limited and the Wipro Corporation. Both the leading Indian technology firms have set up offices in Tokyo. Nearly 10 per cent of Wipro's and 5 per cent of Infosys's software exports are to Japan.

Infosys chairman N R Narayana Murthy said that the company expects "to accelerate our IT initiatives in Japan" after Mori's visit to Bangalore.

"Japan is a growing market for us. We are delighted that the prime minister of the world's second most powerful nation is coming to our office," Murthy told rediff.com. "It is a joyous occasion for us. We are happy that we have the rare honour of receiving the Japanese prime minister in our office," he added.

"We have many ongoing projects in Japan. We are working with several companies in Tokyo. We are certain that Mori's visit to Bangalore will boost our business relations with Japan," the Infosys chairman said.

Krishna and his ministerial colleagues in consultation with the country's infotech and business captains have chalked out an extensive programme for Mori's visit.

The Japanese prime minister, accompanied by a 42-member official and trade delegates, will arrive in the city on Monday evening.

On Tuesday morning, Mori will tour Bangalore's Electronic City, the Wipro and Infosys offices in an attempt to familiarise himself with the functioning of infotech industry in the country. He will then address a meeting of the Japanese and Indian industrialists. Krishna will make a presentation on the investment opportunities in Karnataka and an overview of India to Mori.

Officials said during his presentation to Mori, Krishna will plead for Japan's intervention with the Oil Exporting Countries Forum and the Asia Development Bank to resume loan assistance to India.

Karnataka utilises the OECF funds for drinking water projects and the ADB loans for afforestation programmes in the Western Ghats.

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