India-Japan bilateral investment fund announced by NIIFL worth $600 million

The Japan Bank for International Cooperation, a policy-based financial institution wholly owned by the Government of Japan, has partnered with the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund, an organisation anchored by the Government of India, to establish the India-Japan Fund, its first bilateral fund. The fund's projected corpus would be Rs 49 billion, of which 49% will come from the Indian government and 51% 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. 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 NIIFL in promoting Japanese investments in India to further cement the strong partnership between NIIFL and JBIC in achieving their shared goals.

This collaboration on energy transition between JBIC and NIIFL follows the MoU 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. The equity participation of JBIC in the India-Japan Fund aligns with the shared objectives outlined in the MoU. Rajiv Dhar, MD & CEO of NIIFL, said, "The India-Japan Fund strengthens our commitment to cooperate and invest in opportunities that address India’s environmental and social requirements. We aim to establish an ecosystem that facilitates mobilizing timely and sufficient resources for financing sustainable development".

Hayashi Nobumitsu, governor of JBIC, 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 further to strengthen the economic relationship between the two countries".