Japan to send special mission to evaluate economic recovery

By Meidyatama Suryodiningrat

SINGAPORE (JP): Japan will send a special mission to six Asian countries, including Indonesia, next month to gauge how it can further assist Asia's economic recovery and extend cooperation in human resources development and legal institution building.

Dubbed the Mission for Revitalization of Asian Economy, it will be headed by Japan Federation of Employers Association chairman Okuda.

The mission will visit Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam between late August and early September.

Japan's Foreign Minister Masahiko Koumura said here on Tuesday the mission would help his government better understand the best approaches to be taken to ensure fundamental recovery and sustained development in the region.

"The Okuda Mission will bear the important responsibility of preparing recommendations for Asian economic recovery in the 21st century," said Koumura, who is on the island state as part of a series of dialog meetings with the Association of Southeast Asians (ASEAN).

These recommendations will then be submitted to Japanese Prime Minister Obuchi so that in addition to providing financial assistance, Japan can extend cooperation efforts in human resource development and legal institution building.

The region was swept by a devastating financial crisis in mid- 1997 which saw the region's economic tigers enfeebled.

Japan has been one of the main sponsors in the region's economic recovery, pledging some US$80 billion in aid to help revitalize these countries.

According to Koumura, apart from the six countries mentioned, Tokyo would also send missions to other countries.

A joint project in the works is aimed at the socially vulnerable.

"Japan and the United States are preparing to promote joint projects to assist young children in the Philippines and Indonesia," he said without elaborating.

Yen recovery

Koumura also assured his Southeast Asian neighbors during the meeting that Japan was taking every possible step to recover its own economy, which would in turn help propel the region as a whole.

"Let me state clearly that Japan fully understands the extreme importance Japan's economic recovery has for the recovery of the Asian economies," he said pointing to measures to stabilize its own financial system and stimulate demand.

He added that Tokyo was determined to register positive growth in the 1999 fiscal year.

Focusing on possible deterrents of a recurrence of the financial collapse in the region, Koumura stressed the need to strengthen the international financial system to reduce sudden flows of capital which helped spark the crisis.

Reducing global dependence on the dollar was another important step for the future, he claimed.

"Given that one of the causes of the currency crisis was excessive dependence on the dollar, Japan is focussing its efforts on further institutionalization of the yen," Koumura explained.