2. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has estimated that Southeast Asia’s economies will need US$210 billion a year in infrastructure investment from 2016 to 2030, just to keep up the momentum in economic growth.
3. Fitch data in February last year put Japan’s investment at US$230 billion and China’s at US$155 billion.
4. Vietnam is by far the biggest focus for Japan’s infrastructure involvement, with pending projects worth US$209 billion – more than half of Japan’s total. That includes a US$58.7 billion high-speed railway between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.
5. For China, Indonesia is the primary customer, making up US$93 billion, or 36 per cent, of its overall. The prized project there is the Kayan River hydropower plant in North Kalimantan, valued at US$17.8 billion.
6. Across all of Southeast Asia and by number of projects, Japan also carries the day, though by a smaller margin: 240 infrastructure ventures have Japanese backing, versus 210 for China in all 10 Southeast Asian economies.
JAPANESE INVESTMENTS SINCE 1970s
1. Japanese ventures within emerging Asia, which first began in the late 1970s through multinational companies before the government spearheaded its infrastructure connectivity blueprint in the 1990s, are seen as the poster child for what the G-7 and OECD call “quality infrastructure.”
2. Such projects boast high safety, environmental, reliability and inclusion standards in addition to improving overall logistics in a developing area.
3. For example, the Japan Bank for International Cooperation claims that its loans to Vietnam for a national highway and port upgrades boosted rural household incomes, reduced poverty levels and boosted efficiency.
4. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s administration said in November that it will help Southeast Asian countries groom 80,000 manufacturing and digital industry specialists over five years as part of its push to build smart cities across the region.
5. Many Japanese projects have private backing by Mitsubishi, Toyota, Nintendo and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group —companies that are advancing economic integration in Southeast Asia and know the importance of people-to-people ties in the region, the paper continued.
THOUGHTS
1. While Tokyo may be unable to match Beijing’s war chest, it ranks ahead in terms of reputation and local impact, according to experts.
2. When the former Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos fled office in 1986, his papers exposed a system of corruption implicating dozens of Japanese companies. The resulting embarrassment in Tokyo helped catalyze real reforms, leading to greater transparency, more open competition, and eventually Japan’s first official aid charter.
3. Railroads, communication networks, and agricultural developments built by Japanese corporates and government-linked institutions are especially valued for the technical training and education they provide to local stakeholders, experts said. That goes a long way in cultivating goodwill between Tokyo and host countries.
