Mitsui & Co. is one of Japan’s major corporations, operating in a wide range of industries including Iron and Steel Products, Mineral and Metal Resources, Machinery and Infrastructure, Chemicals, Energy, Lifestyle, Innovation and Corporate Development, and others.
Businesses in a globalized and industrialized world operate on the concepts of cooperation, collaboration, and mutual interests. This is also true of the two major Asian powers, India and Japan. In a recent interview Mr. Faisal Ashraf, MD, Mitsui & Co. India, he talked about the significance and issues in the context of Indo-Japanese economic relations.
Mitsui & Co. is one of Japan’s major corporations, operating in a wide range of industries such as Iron and Steel Products, Mineral and Metal Resources, Machinery and Infrastructure, Chemicals, Energy, Lifestyle, Innovation and Corporate Development, and so on. Mr. Ashraf provides excellent historical, environmental, and geopolitical insights into the nature of Japan-India trading relations.
The friendly diplomatic relations between Japan and India did not emerge overnight, but have existed for centuries. This link can be traced back to Buddhism in the third or fourth century B.C. In fact, the first recorded journeys of Indian Buddhists to Japan date back to the seventh or eighth centuries A.D., while such human-to-human interactions must have happened much earlier. Buddhism is, in fact, one of the core pillars of India and Japan’s current mutual respect-based diplomatic relationship.
Japan, like all other major global players, recognises India’s exceptional economic progress, particularly as expansion in the more conventional industrial and infrastructure areas is now supplemented by significant growth in consumer markets and the digital space.
Japan possesses the technology, experience, and capability to develop business models appropriate to India’s rapid growth in the future. Mitsui has a strong Japanese DNA, yet it is also a globally diverse firm. As a result, they are constantly striving to become the Indian point of contact for all of Mitsui’s companies around the world, including the United States. From their perspective, every investment into India is welcome as long as it offers value through solutions tailored to the specific Indian environment.
In accordance with this approach, Mitsui places a disproportionate emphasis on customizing technology, financial models, and the subsequent deployment of business models that are tailored to the specific needs and difficulties of the Indian market, including its consumers and society at large.
There are no major or insurmountable difficulties in India in terms of demand, supply, or technology. The crucial difficulty, however, is the ability to execute projects on time and within budget, as well as build deployment at a scale that will meet India’s tremendous demand. It has a population of 1.4 billion people and the world’s seventh largest land mass. Given the scenario a few years ago, 150 GW of installed renewable energy would appear to be a significant achievement worthy of congratulation, but it must quickly quadruple. As a result, the major hurdles for maintaining growth momentum are scalability and on-time project implementation. Mitsui intends to contribute to this momentum by collaborating with partners who bring varied capabilities, disciplines, and attitudes to deliver at scale and thereby contribute to the growing momentum said : Mr. Faisal Ashraf, MD, Mitsui & Co. India
