Visakhapatnam, 14 November 2025: ERIA and the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) establishing a 2-year strategic partnership to strengthen ASEAN–India co-operation. The MoU was signed by ERIA President Tetsuya Watanabe and CII President Rajiv Memani during the 30th CII Partnership Summit in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.

The partnership provides a framework for collaboration in policy research, capacity building, and knowledge-sharing to support regional development, integration, and sustainability, while deepening mutual understanding between ASEAN and India.

Under the MoU, ERIA and CII will co-operate in key areas including:

• Digital transformation, leveraging ERIA’s Digital Innovation and Sustainable Economy Centre (E-DISC);
• Energy transition and sustainability, including grid connectivity, clean mobility, carbon markets, and net-zero industrial pathways, supported by ERIA’s Asia Zero Emission Center (AZE Center) and aligned with the India–ASEAN grid ambitions under the One Sun, One World, One Grid (OSOWOG) initiative;
• Trade, MSME development, and innovation ecosystems, with a focus on building an integrated regional environment for MSMEs and startups and enhancing innovation capacity for regional public goods.

President Watanabe also delivered keynote remarks at the Summit’s session Gateway to Growth: The Trade and Investment Imperative. He commended Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trade and investment vision – particularly the Make in India and Atmanirbhar Bharat initiatives – and emphasised emerging opportunities for collaboration between India, ASEAN, and the wider Global South.

The Summit brought together global leaders, industry experts, and senior officials from the Government of India, including the Honourable Vice-President C.P. Radhakrishnan, Honourable Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal, and Honourable Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh N. Chandrababu Naidu.