India, Japan And Australia Formally Launch Supply Chain Resilience Initiative

The trade ministers of India, Japan and Australia formally launched the Supply Chain Resilience Initiative (SCRI) in a Trilateral Ministerial Meeting held virtually on Tuesday (27 April), an official release said.

SCRI was proposed by India, Japan and Australia last year as a trilateral push with the intent of reducing the dependence on China and developing supply chains in the Indo-Pacific region. SCRI is aimed at the creation of a free and transparent trade and investment environment.

Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal, Australia's Trade Minister Dan Tehan and Japan's Trade and Industry Minister Kajiyama Hiroshi jointly announced the launch of the SCRI in a virtual ministerial conference.

According to a joint statement, the ministers acknowledged that the COVID-19 pandemic was having an unprecedented impact in terms of lives lost, livelihoods and economies affected, and that the pandemic had revealed supply chain vulnerabilities globally and in the region. The ministers also noted that some supply chains have been left vulnerable due to a range of factors.

After announcing the launch of the initiative, the three ministers instructed their officials to implement some of the initial projects of the SCRI including sharing of best practices on supply chain resilience; and holding investment promotion events and buyer-seller matching events to provide opportunities for stakeholders to explore the possibility of diversification of their supply chains.

Further, the ministers decided to convene at least once a year to provide guidance to the implementation of the SCRI as well as to consult on how to develop the Initiative.

They noted the important role of business and academia for the Initiative and directed their officials to meet as often as required to take the Initiative forward.

The SCRI aims to create a virtuous cycle of enhancing supply chain resilience with a view to eventually attaining strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth in the region, the statement said.

It was also decided that any expansion of the SCRI may be considered based on consesus, if needed, in due course.

The ministers also explored the option of convening the Trilaterl Ministerial Meeting once in four months to quickly take forward the initiative, it added.