RI interests EIAJ members

JAKARTA (JP): Several members of the Electronics Industries Association of Japan (EIAJ) plan to relocate to Indonesia to tap the growing demand and improving infrastructure here, the deputy director of EIAJ public affairs, Tamotsu Harada, said yesterday.

Harada said that some of EIAJ's members, such as semiconductor producer NEC and Sanyo Industries, a household electronics producer, saw Indonesia as a suitable country for their new production facilities.

"Sanyo has relocated its television and refrigerator plants from Singapore to Indonesia, and eyes the opportunity to relocate its other plants to the country," the executive said.

NEC relocated its transistor plant to Indonesia in July, he said.

"Indonesia has a good potential for the electronics industry because its infrastructure is improving better and its political life is stable," Harada said.

"NEC plans its projects globally. For example we make semiconductors in China but our assembly plant is in Indonesia," Ken Fukuchi, the company's senior public relations manager said.

Ten EIAJ executives are visiting Indonesia as part of a Southeast Asian trip to Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and the Phlippines. The association is gathering information about the market's potential and to exchange information about the growing electronics industry in the region with the local media.

The mission includes public relations and communication executives of Japanese electronics giants Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd, Toshiba Corporation, NEC Corporation, Hitachi Ltd, and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation.

Commenting on why Japanese corporations had fewer production facilities in Indonesia than in Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore, Harada said that it was because Japanese corporations began operating in those countries before Indonesia.

In 1996, the total value of the Japanese electronics industry's worldwide production increased by 7.7 percent from the previous year to US$2.07 trillion.

EIAJ was founded in 1948 as a nonprofit trade organization supporting the sound development and representing the views of Japan's electronics industry.

It has 570 members, comprising 140 full and 430 associate members, including manufacturers in the consumer electronics, industrial electronics and electronic components and devices sectors. (08)