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Japanese investors keen on India’s infrastructure growth story: Jaitley

Japanese conglomerate SoftBank and a number of investors have shown keen interest in investing in India’s “infrastructure growth story”, finance minister Arun Jaitley said on Sunday.

Updated on: May 29, 2016, 19:55:57 IST
By , Tokyo
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Japanese conglomerate SoftBank and a number of investors have shown keen interest in investing in India’s “infrastructure growth story”, finance minister Arun Jaitley said on Sunday as he kicked off his 6-day visit to Japan aimed at attracting investments from Asia’s second biggest economy.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley interacts with journalists during a press conference in Delhi. (HT File Photo)
Finance minister Arun Jaitley interacts with journalists during a press conference in Delhi. (HT File Photo)

After a meeting with Jaitley, SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son said he is also interested in internet companies as well as solar energy sector, where he has already announced 20 billion dollar investment through a joint venture.

“There are people who want to participate in infrastructure growth story. For example, at the SoftBank meeting we just had, they are looking at one of the biggest investments in solar power already,” Jaitley said after meeting Son.

In June last year, SoftBank announced that the group was forming a joint venture with Bharti Enterprises and Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology Group to invest about 20 billion dollar in renewable energy in India. The pact would aim to generate 20 gigawatts of electricity.

“They have made considerable headway and have identified location. It will probably be one of the largest investment in those areas,” Jaitley said.

The Japanese telecom and internet giant has made a string of tech investments in India, amounting to 2 billion dollar in the past two year. SoftBank is looking at accelerating the pace of investments in the future.

“India has a great future... We are interested in investing for Internet companies, also for solar energy. We would make a strong commitment,” Son said.

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