Rajnath Singh invites South Korea for defence manufacturing

Seoul: "India and Republic of Korea (ROK) have formulated a forward-looking roadmap to take bilateral defence industry co-operation to the next level," said defence minister Rajnath Singh while addressing CEOs of Korean and Indian Defence Industries in Seoul on Friday. Korean Minister of Defence Acquisition and Program Administration, Wang Jung-hong was also present in the CEO forum. Singh said the roadmap has listed a number of proposed areas of co-operation in sectors of Land Systems, Aero Systems, Naval Systems, R&D co-operation and collaboration in Testing, Certification and Quality Assurance.

Rajnath Singh invited the Korean Industry to explore the feasibility of local production of items, used in main weapon system, imported by Indian Defence PSUs. He proposed setting up of a task force which identifies such items which are economically viable and locally produced in India resulting in a reduction of import bill.

“Under its ‘Act East Policy’, India considers ROK an indispensable partner for co-operation. We are also conscious of the fact that ROK aims to cement its bilateral relations with India further through the “New Southern Policy”-Rajnath Singh

“India offers tremendous business opportunity to Korean defence industries in India with the liberalised licencing regime, attractive FDI provisions, strong and skilled industrial workforce, single-window clearances and establishment of Defence Investor Cell to facilitate investors and various other industry-friendly initiatives”, said Singh.

The defence minister invited a delegation from Korean Defence Industries to participate in DefExpo 2020 which will be held from February 5 to February 8, 2020, in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. “Attractive discounts can also be offered to such companies who come forward to participate in Def Expo 2020”, he added.

Rajnath Singh said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President of the Republic of Korea, Moon Jae-in share a close bond which has infused the relationship with a greater sense of purpose. “Under its ‘Act East Policy’, India considers ROK an indispensable partner for co-operation. We are also conscious of the fact that ROK aims to cement its bilateral relations with India further through the “New Southern Policy”, said Singh.

Earlier, the CEO Forum was given detailed information about India’s initiatives to attract investments in Indian Defence Corridors from ROK’s defence industries. The Forum was jointly organised by Embassy of Indian and Department, Defence Production, Ministry of Defence (MoD). Secretary (Defence Production) Subhash Chandra, Defence Secretary Dr Ajay Kumar, Indian Ambassador in ROK, Sripriya Ranganathan and other senior officials of India and ROK were present on the occasion.