Southeast Asian countries have urged Japan to...
Southeast Asian countries have urged Japan to buy more of their products, disband trade barriers and spread technological know-how around the region.
The Assn. of South East Asian Nations, which groups together Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei and Indonesia, said Tokyo has a key role in ensuring political stability in the region, but it also has to fulfill its promise to help poorer countries develop.
Solita Aguirre, Manila’s foreign affairs director of ASEAN affairs, said, “ASEAN can only reiterate that Japan provide positive action to ASEAN requests for better terms of cooperation in the economic, financial, industrial, development and cultural fields.”
The director-general of Japan’s foreign ministry Asian affairs bureau, Sakutaro Tanino, said Japan-ASEAN trade rose by 24.7% in 1988 from 1987 and by 23% in 1987 from 1986. Tokyo’s imports of ASEAN manufactured goods have increased by 49% over the past year, he said.
He noted that Japanese investment in ASEAN soared by 78% in 1988 to $2.71 billion against $1.52 billion in 1987.
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