ASEAN wants more Japanese investment
ASEAN wants more Japanese investment
TOKYO (DPA): An investment promotion mission for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Monday called for more Japanese investment to the region as its economies emerge from the doldrums brought on by the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
Malaysian International Trade and Industry Minister Rafidah Aziz said in a key speech at an investment seminar in Tokyo that ASEAN is continuously working on regional trade and investment liberalization and striving to achieve greater economic integration under various initiatives, such as the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) and the ASEAN Industrial Cooperation Scheme (AICO).
The two-day seminar was organized by ASEAN to promote the region as a competitive foreign investment destination and to lure back Japanese investors.
The investment seminar coincides with the two-day visit of a joint ASEAN investment promotion mission to Japan headed by the Malaysian Trade Minister Rafidah.
As AFTA will be implemented in 2002 by Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Brunei and the Philippines, in 2006 by Vietnam, in 2008 by Laos and Myanmar and 2010 by Cambodia, Japanese firms operating in the region will have extended markets, Rafidah said.
The AICO, initiated in 1996 to promote the region's competitiveness as an investment destination, aims to advance joint-venture manufacturing by ASEAN-based companies through resource-sharing and industrial cooperation. Investment projects under AICO enjoy preferential tariff rates between 0-5 per cent, she said.
The Malaysian minister added there are 45 ongoing investment projects under AICO, the majority of which are in the automotive sector. They generate annual revenues of about US$534 million.
Japan is ASEAN's second largest trading partner, accounting for 13.7 percent of the group's total global trade, worth 607.4 billion dollars in 1998. Total two-way trade between ASEAN countries and Japan during January-June 1999 was $40.8 billion, Rafidah said.
Japan is also the biggest non-ASEAN investor in the region, accounting for at least 20 per cent of all non-ASEAN direct investment.
From 1990 to 1998, Japan invested a total of $52 billion in ASEAN countries.
Besides being ASEAN's leading trading partner, Japan is also the primary source of official development assistance.
Rafidah and the ASEAN trade ministers, together with ASEAN Secretary General Rodolfo Severino and representatives of the ASEAN business community, are scheduled to meet with Japanese officials and business leaders on Monday and Tuesday.