Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is partnering with SMRJ (Organization for Small & Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation, JAPAN) to host CEOs Business Meeting under Innovative Sector for SMEs in India and Japan. SMRJ, which operates within the competence of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) of Japan, plays a critical role in promoting SMEs in Japan and overseas. Similarly, CII places utmost importance on the development of Indian SMEs by providing advisory, consultancy, business facilitation, and global connectivity to enhance their competitiveness.

The key objective of this initiative is to facilitate business collaboration between Indian and Japanese companies, particularly for SMEs. CII and SMRJ will host Business Meeting in hybrid mode for Indian CEOs who are seeking opportunities to build partnerships with Japanese companies and to engage with the products and technologies of Japanese SMEs under Innovative Sectors scheduled to be held in June 2025. These meetings will create new value through partnerships between Japanese and Indian companies. CII invites application from eligible Indian companies:

Sectors of Participation:

Indian companies in the following sectors are eligible to apply for India Japan CEOs Business Meetings under Innovative Sector:

• Aerospace
• Robotics
• Factory Automation
• Artificial Intelligence
• IT/IoT
• Industrial Machinery
• EV

Who can apply?

• Companies seeking distributorship agreement/ agency contract or to procure Japanese products/parts.
• Companies interested in product development incorporating Japanese technology and/or components.
• Companies interested in adding values to their products through joint development and/or technological collaboration with Japanese companies.
• Companies seeking to establish joint ventures with Japanese companies (in home country and third-party countries)
• Companies that have high technological capabilities and seek to collaborate with Japanese companies.
• Trading companies (General or Specialized)

NOTE: Companies that only wish to export to Japan are not eligible. All participants in business meetings must be CEOs or senior executive capable of making decisions at the meetings. Shortlisted Indian companies will get an opportunity to collaborate with Japanese companies and grow their business. CII and SMRJ will facilitate business meetings with CEOs. Meetings will be held in June 2025 in hybrid mode.

Hybrid Meeting Criteria:

1. Indian companies having less than 5 meeting requests from Japanese companies will be facilitated meetings through virtual mode.
2. Indian companies getting more than 5 and less than 10 meeting requests from Japanese companies may be invited to Japan to have face-to-face business meetings. This is optional and Indian company willing to have face-to-face meetings in Japan will have to bear the cost of travel and accommodation.
3. Indian companies getting 13 or more meeting requests from Japanese companies will be invited to Japan to have face-to-face business meetings.
4. CII reserves the right to invitation to Japan.

Facilitation Service: CII in partnership with SMRJ will provide application support, screening of applications, recruitment of matching Japanese companies, arrange online business meetings between the matched companies, pre-meeting orientation webinars to prepare for the meeting, presentation translation support in Japanese, interpreter services, expert guidance to prepare the presentation, support in matchmaking, etc. Companies invited to Japan for business meetings will be provided with free travel and accommodation.

Facilitation Fee:

• Facilitation fee for shortlisted Member companies - Rs 30,000/- + GST
• Facilitation fee for shortlisted Non-Member Indian companies is Rs 60,000/- + GST.

Meeting Schedule – Business Meetings will be held in June 2025.

Application Deadline – 28 February 2025