RI interests EIAJ members

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)