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Japanese PM Mori visits India's IT hub |
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August 23, 2000
BANGALORE (AP) - Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori visited India's information technology hub Tuesday and proposed an ambitious initiative for greater collaborations between the two nations, a domestic news agency reported. "I can find good reasons here for the two countries to cooperate in this field," Press Trust of India quoted Mori as saying in an address to information technology executives from across the country. Mori, who is in India on a three-day visit, proposed the Japan-India IT Promotion and Cooperation Initiative, which he said he would discuss with Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in New Delhi on Wednesday. Tokyo would also issue more multiple-entry visas for business visits for Indian travelers, Mori said. Japan is India's fourth-largest investor. Trade between the two countries exceeded dlrs 4.5 billion in 1999. Mori is the first Japanese Prime Minister to visit India in 10 years. Japan will expand its training programs to include 1,000 Indian engineers over three years. They'll be taught Japanese business practices and the language, Mori said. A team of Japanese business executives will travel to India in January, he said. On Thursday, software industry conglomerates from both countries were expected to sign an agreement to increase cooperation between private information technology companies. Bangalore is 1,750 kilometers (1,100 miles) south of New Delhi and is frequently referred to as the Silicon Valley of South Asia. Mori flew into Bangalore from Pakistan, where he urged hostile neighbors India and Pakistan to sign a nuclear test ban treaty and end their conflict over the Kashmir Valley. India has demanded the lifting of economic sanctions by Tokyo, imposed after New Delhi's multiple nuclear tests in 1998. On Wednesday Mori is scheduled to hold talks in the Indian capital with Vajpayee, President Kocheril Raman Narayanan and Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh. He is not scheduled to sign any agreements in New Delhi, but will meet with business leaders to explore investment potential. Strained relations between India and Japan have thawed somewhat since the nuclear tests. Indian External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh traveled to Tokyo in November 1999 and Defense Minister George Fernandes visited Japan in January.
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