Perhaps because his pre-summit wish list was met to his satisfaction, perhaps because the potentially problematic nuclear question was disposed of early in the proceedings, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh came across as considerably more relaxed than the norm, during his interaction with the media on the way home from Tokyo on Saturday.
The visit, he said by way of preface, was intended to transform India's relationship with Japan, the second largest economy in the world. "And you can guess the transformation that is involved because Prime Minister (Shinzo) Abe himself said that he looks upon the India-Japan relationship as the most important bilateral relationship for Japan.
"That is a measure of the transformation that I expect will take place as a result of my visit," Dr Singh added.
Asked whether the various projects announced in the Joint Statement were notional, or whether specific time frames had been set for each, the PM pointed out that the Phase 1 of the Delhi Metro project was complete and Phase 2 is under implementation. "And therefore arrangements regarding the financing should be tied up quickly.
"As far as the dedicated freight corridor linking Delhi-Mumbai and Kolkata is concerned, the preliminary work is almost over. The Japanese have themselves prepared a feasibility study, a detailed project report is now under consideration. This is a massive project; I speak from memory, I think it involves about Rs 22,000 crore. It should take off, I think, in a year's time."
That is a significant sum of money going into one infrastructural project -- could the Japanese quid pro quo be precedence for its companies when it comes to awarding the contracts?
"The normal rule is that we go by competitive bidding," Dr Singh pointed out. "But the Japanese industry's competitiveness is well known. And therefore there is every possibility that a sizeable chunk of the projects will go to Japan on merit."
Asked why the south had been left out of the project, Dr Singh tersely remarked that he did not think the country should not be divided into north and south. "The freight corridor is going to link major parts of the country; Mumbai is not in the north."
Elaborating on the planned project after the PM's press conference, Minister Kamal Nath said it encompassed a wide variety of infrastructural projects under the one umbrella: roadways and railways capable of the sort of heavy vehicular traffic industry requires to transport products to port; additional ports along the western coast capable of handling the expected additional load; Special Economic Zones along the spine of the freight corridor including some that would be Japan-specific; related infrastructure both social and economic…
The chairman of Suzuki had, Nath said, told him he expects to use India as a manufacturing hub, which could fuel exports of 300,000 cars annually. "How is he going to get the cars to the port? For that, they need the sort of freight corridor that is being mooted here."
Dr Singh did not go into such specifics, but said that his visit had given him the sense that Japanese business was ready to 'seize the moment'. Referring to his December 14 lunch with Japanese business leaders under the aegis of the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Dr Singh said, "I found a new-found enthusiasm among the captains of industry, which I had never seen before.
"So I feel that for the first time, the synergy involving both the government and Japanese industry is most favorable as far as investing and trading with India are concerned."
Delivering the keynote at that lunch, Dr Singh had said he was surprised to see Japan losing ground to China and Korea as far as trade with India was concerned, and said he felt the time had come for Japan "to regain its historic status as our most important business partner in Asia."
Dr Singh said, in that speech, that there were signs the trend was changing. "Since the end of 2004, over $5 billion from Japan has been invested in India's capital markets," Dr Singh said; Kamal Nath was to later add that based on his own discussions with Japanese investors, he anticipated that Japanese FIIs will invest $10 billion in India's capital market over the next twelve months.
Economy was the theme of the press conference, and of Kamal Nath's more informal interaction with the media following Dr Singh's exit; the minister in particular seemed particularly buoyant, suggesting that the newly created Business Leaders Forum bringing together top businessmen from both countries would accelerate the pace of economic engagement, once it had worked out the modalities of operation.
A suggestion that China was perceived to have a better investment climate than India prompted the minister to recount that during one of his meetings with business leaders, he had been told 'India is a difficult country to get into but an easy country to stay; China is an easy country to get into, but a difficult country to stay.'
No press interaction involving the prime minister could be complete without a Pakistan question, so there it came: What was the prime minister's reaction to the four-point plan on Kashmir mooted by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf?
In what is likely the first public comment on the issue since Musharraf's statement, Dr Singh said, "I welcome the efforts that whoever puts in to normalise relations between India and Pakistan.
"I have always believed that the destiny of South Asia is linked, and therefore I give high priority to normalising our relations with Pakistan, and solving all outstanding issues between our two countries, and that also includes the issue of Jammu and Kashmir.
"If any time new ideas come, we welcome them, and I would like to say that during the last two and a half years we have had very intensive dialogues with Pakistan," said Dr Singh, who in passing added that he had accepted an invitation extended by Musharraf to visit Pakistan, without however naming a date.
