Greetings from DISG Secretariat
Dear readers,
It is our great pleasure that we have successfully held our flagship event of AJBW, ASEAN Japan Business Week 2022 last week. With 2500+ participants and 100+ distinguished speakers, all sessions throughout 5 days delivered a lot of value and a lot of insights. Please allow me to express my deepest gratitude to all who kindly made their contribution to this event.
One of the main goals of this event was to strengthen ties between ASEAN-Japan business community, and it was notable that we shared the importance of further collaboration in preparation for the 50th Year of ASEAN-Japan Friendship and Cooperation next year.
Minister HAGIUDA, METI Japan, made the announcement in his opening remarks that he expects "the ASEAN-Japan New Vision of Co-creation of Economic Prosperity" should be delivered next year. Such idea was welcomed and endorsed by many business leaders from ASEAN and Japan. The AMEICC Secretariat is looking forward to contributing to the project.
This newsletter of this month also covers the following topics. I hope these would interest many of you.
・Preliminary report of ASEAN-Japan Business Week (AJBW) 2022
・Speech of PM Kishida at the 27th International Conference on The Future of Asia
Best regards,
KOBAYASHI Hirokazu
Chair of AMEICC DISG Task Force
Executive Director, JETRO Singapore
Preliminary report of ASEAN-Japan Business Week (AJBW) 2022
AJBW2022 was held from 30th May to 3rd June. At the Opening Session on the first day, 30th May, H.E. Hagiuda Koichi, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan, H.E. Lim Jock Hoi, Secretary-General of ASEAN, and Mr. Mimura Akio, Chairman of the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI), took the floor to deliver encouraging messages on the ASEAN-Japan economic and industrial partnership.
Minister Hagiuda announced that Japan intends to formulate the "the ASEAN-Japan Economic Co-Creation Vision " (tentative name) in preparation for the 50th Anniversary Year of ASEAN-Japan Friendship and Cooperation in 2023. This vision will set out the direction in which ASEAN and Japan will deepen economic cooperation and aim to become co-creation partners that open up the future. In response, representing the Japanese industry, Mr. Mimura, Chairman of JCCI, emphasized that he would like to work together to formulate a vision for a better future for both ASEAN and Japan, towards the next 50 years.
METI Japan has announced plans to promote holding symposium and seminars to discuss the future direction of economic cooperation between ASEAN and Japan in collaboration with ASEAN industry and academia, and to hold study committees with experts.
This Opening Session was followed by a session entitled "Survey Report on awareness of ASEAN business community 2022: potential for ASEAN-Japan Co-creation”. Major representatives of ASEAN industry attended this session and their expectations for Japanese industry were expressed. Representatives such as Mr. Oknha Sok Piseth from ASEAN-BAC Cambodia, Ms. Shinta W Kamdani, Vice President of KADIN and this year's B20 chair, and Tan Sri Dr. Munir Majid, ASEAN-BAC Malaysia Chair all welcomed the projects announced by Japan for the 50th anniversary in 2023, and expressed great expectations for Japanese initiatives aimed at contributing to Innovative and Sustainable Growth, such as the ASIA-Japan Investing for the Future Initiative(AJIF) announced by Minister Hagiuda in January this year. The session also included a presentation of a summary of the "Survey Report on awareness of ASEAN business community 2022", which was jointly conducted by ASEAN and Japanese industry. The report revealed the high expectations of ASEAN local companies for Japanese companies, as well as some issues that need to be improved. For more information on this report, please click here.
Various other sessions were held throughout the five-day webinar on the theme of Innovative and Sustainable Growth, with lively discussions on Transformation of Japanese Companies, Energy Transition, Human Resource Development, Smart Cities and Supply Chains.
Please look forward to a summary of these discussions, which will be updated on the AJBW2022 website here.
Last but not least, you can watch archived videos of each day program of AJBW 2022 via YouTube from the link below.
Day1: 30th May (Mon)
- Opening session
- Survey Report on awareness of ASEAN business community 2022: potential for ASEAN-Japan Co-creation
- ISEAS-RIETI Joint webinar: ASEAN's Perspective on Current Global Trend and Japan
English: https://youtu.be/hdCX4RFmtdg
Japanese: https://youtu.be/E3O2aKxdxEw
Day2: 31st May (Tue)
- Future direction of Japanese businesses amidst deepening SEA-China economic ties
- Corporate Transformation of Japanese Companies -Critical Strategy to Thrive in Global Competition-
- Key Factors for Developing New Businesses in South East Asia -Leading Case Studies of Corporate Transformation-
- Creating Innovation in South East Asia -Updates on Eco-system and Critical Actions of Business Persons-
English: https://youtu.be/j08xixjGZyE
Japanese: https://youtu.be/0Bk0ydxxzxY
Day3: 01st June (Wed)
- Success of Skilled ASEAN Professionals in Japanese companies
- Efforts to Accelerate Energy Transitions in ASEAN
- Expansion of Japan's Smart cities into the ASEAN region
English: https://youtu.be/QFpD1-z9wGU
Japanese: https://youtu.be/_punDgowj9c
Day4: 02nd June (Thu)
- Current status of Japanese companies’ investment, and the latest business situation in ASEAN
- Latest business situation and environment in ASEAN
English: https://youtu.be/FjdT_lvfJ-4
Japanese: https://youtu.be/CShvesAgfxY
Day5:03rd June (Fri)
- The situation of Japanese companies entering the ASEAN market and the latest business trend in ASEAN
- Finding business opportunity for SMEs in ASEAN region
- Z generation and ASEAN Business
English: https://youtu.be/EcS2bxYHqtQ
Japanese: https://youtu.be/eSSEeGNz4Bw
Speech of PM Kishida at the 27th International Conference
on The Future of Asia
On 26th May 2022, Japan’s Prime Minister, H.E. Mr. KISHIDA Fumio, participated in “the 27th International Conference on The Future of Asia” and delivered an impressive speech. He emphasized “When I think about the future of Asia, what I focus on the most is the relationship between Japan and ASEAN” in his speech. And he announced that in the next year of 2023, Japan and ASEAN will raise the Japan-ASEAN relationship to a new stage, taking the opportunity of celebration for the 50th anniversary of our friendship and cooperation. To this end, we will work together with the members of ASEAN next year to set out a new direction for the relationship and a new vision for cooperation.
PM KISHIDA reiterated the importance of strengthening relationship with Asia under this new vision to overcome social challenges together, in the five pillars of (1) investment in innovation and start-ups, (2) strengthening supply chains, (3) investment in infrastructure to connect Asia, (4) realization of universal health coverage, and (5) the Asia Zero Emissions Community.
Please see here for full contents of his speech.
Top leaders from ASEAN such as H.E. Mr. Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister of the Republic of Singapore, H.E. Mr. Prayut Chan-o-cha, Prime Minister and Minister of Defense of the Kingdom of Thailand, H.E. Dato’ Sri Ismail Sabri bin Yaakob, Prime Minister of Malaysia came to Japan to attend the conference on 26th May. PM Kishida had a bilateral meeting with each leader to discuss deepening cooperation including in the field of digital technologies, cyber security, energy transition etc.
Please see following for further information regards to the Summit Meeting.
For Japan-Singapore Summit Meeting, click here.
For Japan-Thailand Summit Meeting, click here(Japanese Only).
For Japan-Malaysia Summit Meeting, click here.
Editorial Note
