India Can Get Billions of Dollars in FDI from Japan: Chanda Kochhar

TOKYO: As Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised speedy clearances for Japanese investments, ICICI Bank chief Chanda Kochhar today said India can get billions of dollars of fresh investments from Japan.

Kochhar, who is part of a high-level business delegation that has come here for Modi's first official visit as Prime Minister, said that ICICI Bank will play a major role in arranging funds for Japanese investments into India.

The areas that can attract such investments include railways, smart city projects, biotechnology, clean energy, electronics and the overall infrastructure space, Kochhar told PTI in an interview here.

"There is a huge potential to increase the fund flows from Japan and the investments can get a major fillip in the wake of Prime Minister's promise to improve ease of doing business and fast-track the clearances," said Kochhar, Managing Director and CEO of ICICI Bank.

Asked about the estimated size of fresh investments that can come from Japan into India, Kochhar said: "The figure can be huge and it would definitely be in billions of dollars.

"Japan is currently third largest FDI source for India and still its total FDI into India is only 1.7 percent of their overall foreign direct investments. Even if this figure goes to 5 percent, the total investments into India would easily become $5 billion."

She added: "Besides, we are getting only a small percentage of the total assets under management of funds available with Japanese financial institutions. There is huge scope for fresh investments in infrastructure space. The size of investments can be really huge."

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