India-Japan Economic Ties: People-to-People Exchange Key - Envoy

New Delhi, Mar 6 (PTI) There is need to deepen people-to-people relationships between India and Japan for strengthening bilateral economic engagement, Japanese envoy Keiichi Ono said on Thursday.

The Japanese ambassador to India said this in his address at the '48th Joint Meeting of India-Japan and Japan-India Business Co-operation Committee', organised here by FICCI and Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI), according to an official statement.

This "deeper exchange" of people is required from both sides. Japanese population is fast ageing, and Japan needs skilful people for its industry from India, he was quoted as saying in the statement.

Ono said to further India-Japan economic partnership, "we need to have more deeper cooperation in people-to-people exchange".

He further said that many Japanese companies would also like to have "greater involvement" of their Japanese manpower in India for certain operations, the statement said.

"India is now the centre of economic growth in the world. And, we need to have more ambitious targets for engagements between the public and private sectors and further foster people-to-people relationships for strengthening economic engagement between India and Japan," the envoy said.

With around 1,500 Japanese companies currently present in India, both sides felt the need for increasing this number manifold especially with Japanese MSMEs in coming years, he was quoted as saying in the statement. PTI KND