Businessmen want Japan to open its market<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Southeast Asian businessmen yesterday urged
\nJapan to open its domestic market to help reduce the gaping trade
\ndeficit between Japan and the region.<\/p>\n
Businessmen from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
\n(ASEAN) acknowledged that Japan had contributed significantly to
\nthe region's economic development, but said there was still a
\nneed to correct the trade deficit between the two.<\/p>\n
They also asked their Japanese counterparts for increased
\nassistance in the transfer of technology and in the financing of
\nASEAN's infrastructure development, emphasizing the importance of
\naccelerating direct foreign investment into the region.<\/p>\n
The ASEAN businessmen made the request at the closing of the
\n22nd annual meeting of ASEAN and Japanese businessmen.<\/p>\n
The three-day meeting was attended by 63 people from Japan and
\n79 from the seven ASEAN countries, including Vietnam which joined
\nthe organization earlier this year.<\/p>\n
Besides Vietnam, ASEAN groups Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the
\nPhilippines, Singapore and Thailand.<\/p>\n
Tadasu Toba, the co-chairman of the meeting's Pacific
\nResources Group, said the meeting saw Japanese businessmen urging
\ntheir ASEAN counterparts to increase their competitiveness.<\/p>\n
\"This can be achieved through high savings, sound human
\nresource development and the construction of proper
\ninfrastructure facilities,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Toba said the aim of annual meetings between ASEAN and
\nJapanese businessmen was to up-date each other on the comparative
\nadvantages of each participating nation.<\/p>\n
Over the years Japan has enjoyed a trade surplus over most
\nASEAN countries. However, Toba noted a rapid increase in the
\nexport of products from ASEAN countries made with Japanese
\ntechnical assistance.<\/p>\n
\"The increase not only applies for products exported to Japan,
\nbut to other countries as well,\" he said.<\/p>\n
\"The key issue is that ASEAN countries should be competitive
\nenough to enter the Japanese market,\" Toba added.<\/p>\n
Toba said he was confident Indonesia's controversial national
\ncar policy -- which the Japanese government plans to take to the
\nWorld Trade Organization (WTO) for consultations -- would have
\nlittle effect on other industries.<\/p>\n
Indonesia's national car policy has been criticized as
\ndiscriminatory because it favors a single company, PT Timor Putra
\nNasional, which is owned by President Soeharto's youngest son,
\nHutomo Mandala Putra.<\/p>\n
\"The Japanese are a people who think in a very, very long
\nterm... They are not likely to stop investments over a short
\nperiod of time,\" he said.<\/p>\n
\"My company, for example, already has plans to establish three
\nnew plants here in Indonesia,\" said Toba, who is a senior
\nexecutive at the monosodium glutamate manufacturer, Ajinomoto.<\/p>\n
Japan, the European Union and the United States have filed
\ncomplaints with the WTO and called for consultations and,
\npossibly, arbitration.<\/p>\n
The first ASEAN-Japanese Businessmen's Meeting was held in
\n1974 in Tokyo, Japan, as an initiative of the Keizai Doyukai, an
\ninfluential economic organization in Japan.<\/p>\n
Since then, the meeting has been held on an annual basis, with
\nthe next one to be held in Brunei next October. (pwn)<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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