UPI Asia.com
By Hiroshi Yamazaki
UPI Correspondent
January 28, 2009
Tokyo, Japan — Japan is looking toward five countries along the Mekong River as potential partners and investment opportunities amid the shifting economic and political dynamics of the region and the world. Japanese Foreign Minister Hirobumi Nakasone visited Cambodia and Laos earlier this month to deliver development assistance and strengthen ties with these two countries.
In Cambodia Nakasone handed over Japan-made demining machines, used to locate and destroy anti-personnel landmines, and offered assistance to fight infectious diseases and renovate irrigation facilities. In Laos, he offered financial aid of 1.2 billion yen (US$13.5 million) for clearing unexploded landmines and helping flood disaster victims.
It was former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who decided to prioritize the Mekong region for Japanese assistance for three years starting in 2007. This will be the final year of that program.
In addition to Laos and Cambodia, the other three countries are Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand.
Apart from Thailand, these countries are less developed and politically less democratic than the other members of the Association for Southeast Asian Nations, to which they all belong.
Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, though showing high annual growth rates ranging from 8 to 13 percent, remain the least developed among ASEAN states in terms of per capita gross domestic product. Top of the four, Vietnam's US$836 per capita GDP is roughly half that of the Philippines, according to ASEAN statistics.
Vietnam tops the four in other indexes as well: annual GDP is US$71 billion, more than five times higher than the second, Myanmar; Vietnam’s total trade volume of US$110 billion was ten times higher than Myanmar's.
It is therefore not surprising that many Japanese firms favor Vietnam, after China and India, as their preferred destination for foreign direct investment. They cite low costs and good quality labor as the main attractions for investors in Vietnam.
Politically the Mekong countries have little in common. Vietnam is ruled by the Communist Party and Laos by its peculiar brand of socialism, while Myanmar is dominated by the military junta. Thailand and Cambodia have different degrees of democracy, both under the titular reign of kings.
The five countries each have their own national language and ethnicity as well.
At a seminar held last week in Tokyo, Toshihiro Kudo, senior researcher at the Institute of Developing Economies, described three “economic corridors,” cutting east/west and north/south across the Mekong area that includes Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand, as well as Malaysia and Singapore.
Kudo said he expects commercial traffic to increase through these corridors. But countries without significant industrial bases, such as Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, are concerned that business passing through their borders may not benefit them. Kudo has suggested promoting border trading posts and manufacturing bases to exploit the economic disparities and social diversity between these nations.
Masayuki Takashima, director of Asian Logistics Inc., has reported a not-so-seamless road network connecting the main cities in the region, however. In the 1,400-kilometer stretch through Hanoi and Vietnam into Bangkok, Thailand, his investigative team had to deal with six customs checkpoints.
"Any additional transportation time would become a logistic burden on business," he said.
In the longer term ASEAN should consider a joint infrastructure development scheme involving not only roads and rails but also communications, electricity, and water and sewage systems, advised Shinji Asanuma, visiting professor at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo.
According to Asanuma, “soft power” approaches are also necessary among these diverse regimes. To reach their full cooperative potential, they need to share a long-term vision and common standards – a tall order given the present divisions.
Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand do have one thing in common with each other and with many Japanese – Buddhism. Compared to other ASEAN nations, whose predominant cultures include Christianity in the Philippines and Islam in Indonesia and Malaysia, the five Mekong region nations are traditionally oriented toward Buddhism.
In addition, many senior Japanese citizens are sentimentally connected to this region based on their experiences in World War II, when the Japanese army operated in the region under the national slogan of building a "Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere” aimed at supplanting European colonial powers. During the war this came to be seen as a euphemism for Japan’s military expansion.
Contemporary calls for East Asian integration fall under the growing shadow of influence from China, which is rigidly ruled by the Communist Party. Japan is attempting to demonstrate a different model of success based on democratic principles and less authoritarian rule.
The ASEAN nations have acknowledged that Japanese money, technology and markets contributed significantly to the economic success of the "Asian Tigers" through the 1990s. In similar fashion, Japan's involvement in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam could help their economies and lay the foundation for a more closely integrated East Asia.
By Hiroshi Yamazaki
UPI Correspondent
January 28, 2009
Tokyo, Japan — Japan is looking toward five countries along the Mekong River as potential partners and investment opportunities amid the shifting economic and political dynamics of the region and the world. Japanese Foreign Minister Hirobumi Nakasone visited Cambodia and Laos earlier this month to deliver development assistance and strengthen ties with these two countries.
In Cambodia Nakasone handed over Japan-made demining machines, used to locate and destroy anti-personnel landmines, and offered assistance to fight infectious diseases and renovate irrigation facilities. In Laos, he offered financial aid of 1.2 billion yen (US$13.5 million) for clearing unexploded landmines and helping flood disaster victims.
It was former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who decided to prioritize the Mekong region for Japanese assistance for three years starting in 2007. This will be the final year of that program.
In addition to Laos and Cambodia, the other three countries are Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand.
Apart from Thailand, these countries are less developed and politically less democratic than the other members of the Association for Southeast Asian Nations, to which they all belong.
Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, though showing high annual growth rates ranging from 8 to 13 percent, remain the least developed among ASEAN states in terms of per capita gross domestic product. Top of the four, Vietnam's US$836 per capita GDP is roughly half that of the Philippines, according to ASEAN statistics.
Vietnam tops the four in other indexes as well: annual GDP is US$71 billion, more than five times higher than the second, Myanmar; Vietnam’s total trade volume of US$110 billion was ten times higher than Myanmar's.
It is therefore not surprising that many Japanese firms favor Vietnam, after China and India, as their preferred destination for foreign direct investment. They cite low costs and good quality labor as the main attractions for investors in Vietnam.
Politically the Mekong countries have little in common. Vietnam is ruled by the Communist Party and Laos by its peculiar brand of socialism, while Myanmar is dominated by the military junta. Thailand and Cambodia have different degrees of democracy, both under the titular reign of kings.
The five countries each have their own national language and ethnicity as well.
At a seminar held last week in Tokyo, Toshihiro Kudo, senior researcher at the Institute of Developing Economies, described three “economic corridors,” cutting east/west and north/south across the Mekong area that includes Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand, as well as Malaysia and Singapore.
Kudo said he expects commercial traffic to increase through these corridors. But countries without significant industrial bases, such as Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, are concerned that business passing through their borders may not benefit them. Kudo has suggested promoting border trading posts and manufacturing bases to exploit the economic disparities and social diversity between these nations.
Masayuki Takashima, director of Asian Logistics Inc., has reported a not-so-seamless road network connecting the main cities in the region, however. In the 1,400-kilometer stretch through Hanoi and Vietnam into Bangkok, Thailand, his investigative team had to deal with six customs checkpoints.
"Any additional transportation time would become a logistic burden on business," he said.
In the longer term ASEAN should consider a joint infrastructure development scheme involving not only roads and rails but also communications, electricity, and water and sewage systems, advised Shinji Asanuma, visiting professor at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo.
According to Asanuma, “soft power” approaches are also necessary among these diverse regimes. To reach their full cooperative potential, they need to share a long-term vision and common standards – a tall order given the present divisions.
Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand do have one thing in common with each other and with many Japanese – Buddhism. Compared to other ASEAN nations, whose predominant cultures include Christianity in the Philippines and Islam in Indonesia and Malaysia, the five Mekong region nations are traditionally oriented toward Buddhism.
In addition, many senior Japanese citizens are sentimentally connected to this region based on their experiences in World War II, when the Japanese army operated in the region under the national slogan of building a "Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere” aimed at supplanting European colonial powers. During the war this came to be seen as a euphemism for Japan’s military expansion.
Contemporary calls for East Asian integration fall under the growing shadow of influence from China, which is rigidly ruled by the Communist Party. Japan is attempting to demonstrate a different model of success based on democratic principles and less authoritarian rule.
The ASEAN nations have acknowledged that Japanese money, technology and markets contributed significantly to the economic success of the "Asian Tigers" through the 1990s. In similar fashion, Japan's involvement in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam could help their economies and lay the foundation for a more closely integrated East Asia.
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