Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Chairman of NEC Corporation Nobuhiro Endo

Tokyo: Giving a new dimension to India-Japan cooperation, Chairman of NEC Corporation Nobuhiro Endo on Monday said Japan will contribute to smart cities and the 5G projects in India.

After meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Tokyo, Endo said that the latter has a strong intention to build and enhance capabilities.

Endo said that Japan will contribute in building smart cities in India.

"From smart cities point of view, we can contribute from the application and also provide the communication platforms like 5G. We already have the solution to all those areas," said Dr Nobuhiro Endo, talking about collaboration with India for smart cities and 5G.

Emphasizing the importance of collaborating with telecom operators in India to provide safe and secure 5G systems in India, he added, "To implement the applications, we need to have a communication with India and in order to provide 5G systems, we need to confirm the security and safety. So, we need to have a collaboration with operators in India and try to confirm the security and safety of the system."

When asked about enhancing capacity and investment in India going forward in various sectors as PM Modi has taken various reforms in India recently, he said, "We needed to have a discussion about the enhancement itself. However, from the viewpoint of development, we already have 6000 engineers from India and they are quite closely working with us. We will like to continue our project with them."

According to MEA, both the leaders discussed various reforms that are being undertaken to enable ease of doing business in India including in areas of industrial development, taxation and labour. They also discussed opportunities in India in new and emerging technologies.

PM Modi arrived in Tokyo for a two-day visit at the invitation of the Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. Prime Minister Modi will participate in the third Quad Leaders' Summit in Tokyo on May 24 along with other Quad members.

The PM will have a bilateral meeting with Fumio Kishida, Prime Minister of Japan, on May 24.

The meeting with PM Kishida will provide an opportunity for the two leaders to carry forward their conversations from the 14th India-Japan Annual Summit held in March 2022, when PM Kishida visited India. During the visit, the PM will participate in a Business Event with Japanese business leaders and also interact with the Indian community.

Indian ambassador to Japan Sanjay Kumar Verma on Sunday had said that PM Modi will have a round table with 35 business leaders.

"We have a round table where we will have around 35 business leaders and they are quite big as companies, and in addition, leaders will be separately meeting the PM," he told ANI.