Ahmedabad, 28 July 2012

Senior Gujarat government officials and industrialists who on Friday returned back from Japan visit, today addressed the media in Ahmedabad. Shri Parimal Nathwani of Reliance Group, Shri Pankaj Patel of Zydus Kedila, Shri Sudhir Mehta of Torrent group were part of the event among others.

The government officer said that between Monday to Friday, besides the serious engagements in Tokyo – the capital, the delegation visited four states and in Tokyo they met the Deputy Prime Minister and four other ministers, beside the hosts of other companies and chamber of commerce. In the states they met three Chief Ministers and somewhere Vice Chief Ministers and others. There were three industrial seminars and participants participated through registration and not through invitation. This means very serious participants were there. Beside these events, they had three-four receptions in which they met business delegations and lot of other people interested in investment in Gujarat. In all they had 65 serious engagements, beside that business delegation and officials had different meetings. The reception and courtesy shown to the Chief Minister and delegation. They go by discipline, but courtesy and reception given to the Chief Minister was of very high order.

Shri Pankaj Patel of Zydus Cadila said, “Meetings were professionally arranged and persons participated in the meetingd were very senior persons from their companies. They paid money and came to listen about Gujarat as there was a provision of registration and not invitation – this shows that they were interested in Gujarat. Many meetings took place, but I want to highlight one thing – we talk about investment in Gujarat, but I think we are going beyond that. In discussion with the Japanese government we said that there should be a subject to learn Japanese language in Gujarat for better availability of professionals who know Japanese language. The Japanese government welcomed this idea.We also discussed environment, cultural activity and more during this visit.”

Shri Parimal Nathwani, Group President of Reliance Industry Limited(RIL) said, “our process with Japan began in 2007 when for the first time many industry members went to Japan with Shri Modi. In 2007 they were asking ‘why Gujarat’, and they listened to us, and later also became our partner in Vibrant Gujarat Summit. But now at present the difference between 2007 and 2012 is so wide that they are asking ‘why not Gujarat’. We saw results of this while meeting Suzuki and other delegates and banks.”

He further said, “this time there was great excitement because in the period of post-2007, or say the period of Tsunanmi and earthquake. When this third richest country of the world that enjoys leading position in financial resources is looking for safe investment, India is the biggest market, and when they decide to go to India, where should they go? Gujarat has labour peace, environment is good for business and industries, power supply, road, airport, broad gauge railway, ports for export – everything is in place. They continued to study us between 2007 and 2012. Gujarat is not just a state for them, but there’s a special place of Gujarat in their mind. They excited about Gujarat and are greatly attracted towards this state. The Gujarat Chief Minister received a Prime Minister like welcome. Their Deputy Prime Minister, Ministers, Chief Minister, they all have trust on Chief Minister’s leadership.”

Speaking in media briefing session, Torrent Group’s Shri Sudhir Mehta said, ” in 2003 on the occasion of the first Vibrant summit, it all started with the visits to Singapore and Australia, and it gradually reached more countries. The time period they take to invest is five to seven years. Our homework paid well in this visit. They were curious and asking about cluster location, education related things, language related issues etc. JETRO successfully organized good seminars with participation of 200-400 investors. We also met the Indian community at Kobe. There are many Gujaratis there involved in pearl business. They have settled there for last 100-150 years. Being Gujaratis, and some of them not even from Gujarat – they also want to invest back in India. Their questions showed their interest. The dinner meeting started at 8.00 pm and completed at 11.30 pm. Overall I would rate it as a very successful visit. Investment is a process, you can’t expect that overnight everything would arrive, so it will take its own time, but we think this time in Vibrant Gujarat summit, lots of companies will be arriving and in next two-three years major investment will take place with participation of large as well as small and medium scale industries.”