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The first meeting of the India-Japan ICT Ministerial Forum concluded with the signing of a Joint Statement and three Memoranda of Understanding for enhancing the cooperation in the Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector. Shri Dayanidhi Maran, Minister of Communications & Information Technology and Mr. Taro Aso, Minister of Internal affairs and Communications, Japan, signed a Joint Statement at the conclusion of the Ministerial ICT Forum, here today, to explore and identify the possibility of having joint ventures and stand-alone projects in the areas of Broadband, Mobile Communication, E-Governance, Information Security, R&D and Ubiquitous Computing.
Both the sides decided to constitute Working Groups comprising of industries and representatives of the Government in the areas of Broadband, Mobile Communication, E-Governance, Information Security, R&D and Ubiquitous Computing so as to achieve the meaningful outcome of India-Japan ICT Forum. It was agreed by both the sides that these Groups will evolve detailed action plan for the implementation of the programmes contained in the Joint Statement. In order to monitor the activities of the Working Groups and the implementing agencies, through regular interaction between Government-to-Government, Government-to-Business and Business-to-Business, appropriate Joint Task Force would be constituted under the framework of ICT Forum. It was further agreed that the Joint Task Force will be headed by Mr. M. Madhavan Nambiar, Additional Secretary, Department of Information Technology from Indian side and Mr. Ishida, Director General, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) from the Japanese side
Three Memoranda of Understanding were signed in the presence of Shri Dayanidhi Maran and Mr. Taro Aso separately between NICT of Japan and C-DAC, C-DOT and IIT (Guwahati) to undertake and promote joint programmes in R&D and development of human resource.
Deliberations and presentations have also been made by the leading corporates of India and Japan which show their keen interest to explore the opportunities for having joint collaboration to promote R&D, investment and trade between the two countries.
Earlier, Shri Dayanidhi Maran, speaking at the first session of the India-Japan ICT Ministerial Forum has said that the meeting would increase the momentum to the joint efforts in furtherance of cooperation between the two sides. He hoped that the agreements which were signed now would translate the mutual desire for cooperation into action by setting the stage to establish working panels for individual business segments, cell phones, broadband Internet access, electronic government, e-commerce and security. Shri Maran further said that the synergies and complementaries between the two economies offer immense potential for enhanced economic cooperation that would benefit both the countries. The ICT revolution holds out exciting opportunities for collaboration by Indian and Japan. India's cost effective and innovative software skills can be productively aligned with Japan's undoubted prowess in the hardware industry, Shri Maran added.
In his address at the Ministerial Forum, the visiting Japanese Minister Mr. Taro Aso, said that he was convinced that the enthusiasm of the Japanese ICT industries mirrored the growing expectation they had in regard to their Indian counterparts. A collaborative partnership between Japan -- the most advanced ICT nation, and India -- an advanced nation in the software field, would bring about the realisation of an unparalleled ICT power. Mr. Aso said that working groups would work as fora for encouraging interested participants from governments, industries and academics of the two countries. The MOUs signed today, he hoped, will bring the two countries fruitful results.
The India-Japan ICT Ministerial Forum is the outcome of a programme of cooperation, comprising of eight fold initiatives chalked out by the Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, and the Prime Minister of Japan, Junichiro Koizumi during the latter’s visit to India in April 2005.
RM/AMA- 240805 JOINT DECLARATION
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