The quasi-sovereign National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) and Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) will start a $600 million bilateral fund to actively invest in India’s environmental preservation sector, the two agencies said on Wednesday.
The government of India would contribute 49% to the fund and the remaning 51% would be from JBIC.
“The India-Japan Fund will actively invest in India’s environmental preservation sector, including renewable energy, e-mobility businesses, and circular economy sectors such as waste management, and water,” NIIF saidt.
Moreover, the Fund also aims to foster collaboration between Indian and Japanese companies across all sectors. JBIC IG Partners, a subsidiary of JBIC, will support NIIF in promoting Japanese investments in India.
This collaboration on energy transition between JBIC and NIIF follows the memorandum of understanding signed in November 2022, which focused on promoting environmental preservation, low carbon emission strategies, and the growth of the Indian economy, and enhancing the cooperative relationship between Indian and Japanese companies.
NIIFL and JBIC look forward to successfully investing the India-Japan Fund, bringing together the best of Indian and Japanese expertise, resources, and innovation to drive environmental sustainability and foster business collaboration.
“We aim to establish an ecosystem that facilitates mobilising timely and sufficient resources for financing sustainable development,” Rajiv Dhar, Managing Director & CEO of NIIF, said.
Mr. Dhar emphasised, “This fund also reinforces the longstanding relationship between our two nations while encouraging Japanese companies to invest in India.”
JBIC Governor Hayashi Nobumitsu said, “In March 2022, the Governments of India and Japan set a target of 5 trillion yen for public and private investment and financing from Japan to India over the next five years and announced the India-Japan Clean Energy Partnership in the area of climate conservation. The two Governments recently announced a Japan-India Industrial Co-Creation Initiative to further strengthen the economic relationship between the two countries.”
“Against the backdrop of the unstable world situation and problems such as a severed supply chain, Japanese companies are increasingly interested in entering the Indian market as a relocation destination for a production base or an investment destination,” Nobumitsu said.
NIIF is a collaborative investment platform for international and Indian investors, anchored by the Government of India, which manages funds with investments in different asset classes and diversified sectors that generate attractive risk-adjusted returns. NIIF currently manages over $4.9 billion of equity capital commitments across its four funds.