As India moves to boost its Make In India scheme, several Japanese companies have evinced interest in setting up their factories or furthering their investments in the country. Sources said that Haryana seems to be the favorite investment destination. The state’s business capital Gurugram is already home to a large number of Fortune 500 companies.

The state government, in a statement, said it is already in talks with a few of them. Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and Satoshi Suzuki, Ambassador of Japan to India, also held a video conference on the issue. About 35 Japanese investors were present at the meeting.

The statement also said that several Japanese companies such as Honda, Daikin, Maruti Suzuki, Canon, Mitsui, and NEC Technologies, which already have their factories in Haryana, are keen to make further investments by expanding their industrial units.

Khattar shared various new initiatives taken by the state government to woo foreign investors, including allotment of land to manufacturing units on lease basis.

India is trying to position itself as a major investment destination as many global companies showed their keenness to move out of China in the wake of the spread of Covid-19.

To woo investors and create job opportunities, Haryana and other states such as Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Assam, Odisha and Maharashtra have already brought in sweeping changes in their state labor laws. The Uttar Pradesh government too has announced suspension of labor laws for a period of three years. The government has also passed an ordinance to facilitate the same.

“We are moving very fast to boost investments in the country. The results will be visible in the next one to one and half years,” said Deepak Bagla, CEO and managing director Invest India, the nodal agency for investments in the country.

Haryana’s electronics and IT exports stood at $7.2 billion 2017 accounting for 6.2 per cent of the total electronics and IT exports from India..