Malaysia urges Japan to open markets to more ASEAN goods

Asian Economic News, March 6, 2000

KUALA LUMPUR, March 2 Kyodo

Japan should support Southeast Asia's economic recovery by importing more products from the region, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said Thursday.

"As Asia's leading economy, we look to Japan to assume a natural leading role by facilitating our access to its market," Mahathir told a business forum jointly organized by the Kansai Economic Federation (Kankeiren) of Japan and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

"It is understandable that in the last decade of economic downturn, Japan was unable to be an engine of growth for the regional economies by increasing imports from ASEAN," he said.

Mahathir added, however, that with Japan's economy showing "concrete signs" of recovery, Japanese companies should assist Southeast Asian manufacturers by increasing imports into the Japanese market.

Tokyo could help increase the volume of trade between Japan and Southeast Asian countries by relaxing trade procedures and some nontariff barriers, he said.

Mahathir added that Malaysia exports many products to Japan, but they are mostly manufactured by Japanese companies located in Malaysia.

He expressed his hope that more products manufactured by locals would enter the Japanese market.

The Thursday forum was part of commemorative events marking the 20th anniversary of cooperation on human-resources management between Kankeiren and ASEAN.

Led by chairman Yoshihisa Akiyama, the Kankeiren mission is on a four-day visit to Malaysia to discuss future human-resources development cooperation to contribute to the sustainable development of ASEAN economies. It also wants to further strengthen the relationship between ASEAN and Japan.

Mahathir also paid tribute to Kankeiren and its research arm, the Pacific Research Exchange Center (PREX), for training hundreds of people from Southeast Asian countries in the past 20 years.

"It speaks well of Japan that Kankeiren has been imparting management skills and assisting the developing economies in their transition from centrally-planned to market economies," Mahathir said.

To date, PREX has trained 1,400 people in Japan and organized numerous training programs abroad for about 3,300 people from 53 countries.

In her keynote address, Malaysia's International Trade and Industry Minister Rafidah Aziz said Kankeiren and similar organizations could serve as catalysts to motivate Japanese firms in Malaysia and ASEAN to "comprehensively package human-resource development in their investment plan."

Rafidah said the firms could avail themselves of various incentives offered by the Malaysian government for such projects.