Pena off on Asia sales trip
Pena off on Asia sales trip
WASHINGTON (Reuter): Transportation Secretary Federico Pena leaves on Sunday on a 17-day sales trip to Asia to try to help U.S. firms win a share of the billions of dollars Asians will be spending on new construction.
His trip will include the first U.S. trade mission to Vietnam since Washington restored diplomatic ties with Hanoi last August as well as stops in Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Portuguese colony of Macao.
Pena told a U.S.-ASEAN Council meeting on Thursday that he and other U.S. officials are working to open trade in the emerging nations and searching out new markets.
"Because when there is a global level playing field," he said, "U.S. companies do well."
The members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Vietnam and Brunei.
In Indonesia, he said, with its 200 million people and thousands of islands, transportation is the key to economic growth. "For many American companies," Pena added, "this is their hottest market in the region."
Pena said that Asia with a growth rate of more than nine percent a year is the fastest growing market anywhere. It now takes one-third of all American exports.
U.S. airlines will soon be generating more revenue from Pacific routes than Atlantic routes, he added.
Pena will be going with officials from some two dozen top U.S. firms to try to reap contracts for spending on Asian construction that include airports, highways and railroads.
He said East Asian and Pacific economies are expected by the World Bank to spend some $600 billion on transportation projects over the next decade.
Pena said Vietnam is just starting to rebuild after the war, adding "they will need to build new roads, airports, ports and rail systems. And these are projects in which America has a competitive edge."
He said that in Bangkok he will meet with his counterpart to look at a number of projects, including a second airport, a new expressway and a high speed railway from Bangkok to the eastern seaboard.
Pena said there are similar potentials in the other nations he is to visit.
He said he would be taking up aviation issues also, including discussing liberalized air services with Hong Kong, the Philippines and Macao.
Pena added that in Bangkok, he hoped to renew talks to reach an improved air services accord with Thailand.
Discussing U.S.-Japanese air ties, Pena reiterated his goal of resolving their dispute over cargo traffic before meeting any Japanese bid to revise their passenger accord, which Japan has said is weighted in America'a favor.