Greetings from DISG Secretariat
Dear Readers,
Here it is already September. I hope all of you have a good start.
In Tokyo, it is in the midst of the Paralympic Games and I am always moved by the excellent performance of Para-athletes.
For our DISG activities, the 6th webinar was successfully held on 26th August, 2021. An intensive and fruitful discussion was made under the topic of green growth and energy transitions which are one of the topics attracting most attention all over the world.
Another highlighted ASEAN-Japan collaboration event is “NET ZERO Leaders Summit” hosted by JETRO. On 11th August, 2021, the online event entitled “Venture Opportunities in Regional Japan” was successfully held by JETRO Singapore.
In our latest DISG news, We picked up Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Asia Pacific’s activities regarding hydrogen powered “tri-generation” plant for data centres in Singapore. This is a good example of Japanese company’s innovative business activity in Southeast Asia.
In addition, there was a lot of progress and achievement of ASEAN-Japan collaboration at the government level in August. A variety of issues about innovation and sustainability highlighted in our DISG webinars were discussed in Thailand-Japan High Level Joint Commission, as well as in Japan-ASEAN Heads of Intellectual Property Offices Meeting.
Please refer to the following pages for further details.
Stay safe and healthy,
KOBAYASHI Hirokazu
Chair of AMEICC DISG Task Force
Executive Director, JETRO Singapore
The 6th DISG Webinar of the Series:
“Promoting Green Growth and Energy Transition in ASEAN region”
We welcomed the opening remarks from H.E. Satvinder Singh, Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN for ASEAN Economic Community, informed that the ASEAN Comprehensive Recovery Framework (ACRF) will include the energy transition initiative and emphasized that international collaboration is key to achieve the goals.
Then, Mr. Minami Ryo, Deputy Commissioner for International Policy on Carbon Neutrality, Ministry of Trade, Economy and Industry (METI), Japan, delivered a keynote speech in which he introduced Japan’s initiatives to achieve carbon neutrality goal and highlighted ongoing efforts and beyond of ASEAN-Japan collaboration in energy transition.
After the keynote speech, a panel discussion was held with three panelists; Dr. Nuki Agya Utama from ASEAN Centre for Energy, Dr. Saleh Abdurrahman from Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, and Mr. Soda Takeshi from METI moderated by Dr. Han Phoumin, Senior Energy Economist, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA).
They discussed three topics: 1) The current efforts and challenges for energy transition in ASEAN, 2) Important circumstances and conditions when promoting energy transition in ASEAN, and 3) “Necessary international cooperation and further cooperation between ASEAN and Japan for Green Growth and Energy Transition”.
We’ll share a summary of this webinar soon with you once it issues. Please look forward to it.
NET ZERO Leaders Summit
The "NET ZERO Leaders Summit (Japan Business Conference 2021)" opened on 28th July, 2021, an online event organized by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) to offer you information on the attractiveness of the investment environment in Japan and initiatives toward the realization of Net Zero. Emerging countries including Southeast Asia joined here. This Summit started from an honorable speech from H.E. SUGA Yoshihide. Prime Minister, Japan. He mentioned that achieving a decarbonized society is a driving force for sustainable economic growth, and that he would very much welcome the investment and cooperation in the large green market that will emerge in Japan.
Several JETRO overseas offices are offering online event series under this Summit event. In southeast asia, the event entitled “Venture Opportunities in Regional Japan” was successfully held by JETRO Singapore on 11th August, 2021. This webinar shared some regional initiatives in Japan - Kamiyama Town in Tokushima Prefecture and Kanagawa Prefecture, to broaden your choices for your business venture into Japan.
The event is in progress and further online event organized by JETRO overseas offices will be held sequentially. You can watch the archived video of “Main Program: Global leaders discuss Net Zero” held on 28th July, and “Venture Opportunities in Regional Japan” on 11th August, if you register.
Please see here for further details.
Focus on ASEAN-Japan Collaboration
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Asia Pacific
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. (“MHI AP”), is working to implement hydrogen powered “tri-generation” plant for data centres in Singapore. Since Singapore is one of the core countries for data centres and there is an increasing trend toward eco-friendly data centres around the world, MHI AP believes that they can contribute to Singapore by developing hydrogen (extracted from natural gas) powered plants with our expertise as one realistic way to achieve “carbon neutrality”.
Their project in Singapore has two pillars; 1) producing hydrogen in Singapore by using a technology called SMR (Steam Methane Reforming), and 2) generating electricity by rotating gas turbine with hydrogen combustion.
MHI AP partners up with Keppel Data Centres (“KDC”) which is one of the world’s leading data centre companies and under the umbrella of Keppel Corporation, one of Singapore’s flagship multinational companies. Combining KDC’s ability to leverage the strengths of Keppel’s eco-system and MHI AP’s strength of providing facilities which enable the whole process of “tri-generation” power plant will bring great synergy and success.
Please see here for further details.
The progress of G2G economic dialogues between ASEAN and Japan
On 11th August, 2021, H.E. Mr. Don Pramudwinai, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Thailand, and H.E. Mr. MOTEGI Toshimitsu, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan, co-chaired the 5th Meeting of the Thailand – Japan High Level Joint Commission (HLJC) via teleconference.
They discussed three key areas; 1) Collaboration between Thailand’s Bio-Circular-Green (BCG) Economic Model and Japan’s Green Growth Strategy, 2) Cooperation in Trade, Investment, Industrial Development and Enhancement of Business Environment, and 3) Cooperation for Connectivity Enhancement, Development of the Mekong Sub-region, and Healthcare Field.
Please see here for further details.
The Japan Patent Office (JPO) and the intellectual property (IP) offices of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Member States held the Eleventh Japan-ASEAN Heads of Intellectual Property Offices Meeting via video conference on 2nd August, 2021. During the meeting, participants agreed on the FY2021 Japan-ASEAN IP Rights Action Plan. Additionally, the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) reported the results of their study on patent examination practices of AI inventions at the individual IP offices of ASEAN Member States.
Please see here for further details.
Editorial Note
We thank everyone for your interest and support. Please look forward to the future webinar series and information dissemination through newsletters and our website, social media, etc.
The next DISG webinar will be held in October. We’ll inform you of the detail and application form shortly. Please look forward to further announcement.
