MUMBAI, Sept 24 Reuters JPMorgan, the largest bank in the U.S., is bullish on India and Japan within Asia but is also keen to allocate resources towards Southeast Asia, which is benefiting from the China Plus One strategy, a top official at the bank said.
India is still firmly in the top three, possibly top two in Asia, together with Japan. Growth in India is actually very broadbased, Sjoerd Leenart, JPMorgan39;s Asia Pacific CEO, said in an interview on Monday.
We are investing on all fronts in India. We39;re adding bankers, we39;re putting more capital into the business and we39;re building capabilities such as technology investments to service new segments of the market, he added.
JPMorgan expects its commercial banking business, which is focused on midsized companies, to grow as much as 30 in India over the next few years, Leenart said.
India would need to further build its manufacturing ecosystem and ensure scalability to gain from the China Plus One strategy which has currently largely benefited the Southeast Asian countries, he added.
China Plus One is a strategy that businesses are following to diversify investment and supply chains from China into other countries.
In India this next leg will to an extent be about becoming a manufacturing hub, creating blue collar jobs, and that39;s an opportunity, but it39;s almost a necessity for India, Leenart said.
So if that strategy doesn39;t work, then India may not do as well as people expect. That39;s probably…