This year, Japan and ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) celebrated the 50th anniversary of their friendship and cooperation. Taking advantage of this occasion, this three-part series will look back on the trust and development that Japan and JICA have built with ASEAN, and will feature a vision of the partnership for the future. In the first installment, we interviewed Mr. Tomoho Hayakawa, Director of the Southeast Asia and Pacific Department, about JICA’s cooperation with ASEAN and the future of Japan.
The ASEAN region has developed beyond imagination
Southeast Asia has a total population of 680 million. ASEAN, which currently consists of 10 countries in the region, was established in 1967 to ensure economic growth and political stability in the region. While the countries have different languages, ethnic groups, cultures, climates, and political systems, they respect each other’s diversity and have worked together as one community to achieve prosperity and stability in the region.
Southeast Asia’s economic growth has been remarkable, with total GDP (gross domestic product) rising from $0.66 trillion in 2002 to $3.6 trillion by 2022, making it a major economic zone. Southeast Asia is attracting attention from the international community as an “open world growth center” and is Japan’s second largest trading partner after China.
GDP per capita (nominal, U.S. dollars) includes World Bank data for 2022
-Even looking at the total GDP alone, ASEAN’s growth has been spectacular, with a 5.5-fold expansion over the past 20 years. Mr. Hayakawa, you were stationed in Vietnam about 20 years ago.
Hayakawa: I really feel that ASEAN countries are developing more than many Japanese imagine. I was stationed in Hanoi, Vietnam for three and a half years from 2002. At a small shopping mall in the center of the city that was completed around that time, escalators were still a rarity, and children would go out of their way to ride them. Today, large shopping malls line the streets, and in the late 1990s, many of the bicycles that used to ply the streets have been replaced by motorcycles and automobiles. The urban landscape in Hanoi, and in many other large cities in Southeast Asia, is much the same as in Japan.
I am frequently visited at JICA headquarters in Tokyo by government officials and private sector officials from ASEAN countries, and they all look powerful and full of confidence. I feel that not only economic development and improvement in living standards, but also people’s mindsets have changed.
The streets of Jakarta, Indonesia, host of the last ASEAN Summit (Photo: Shutterstock/Creativa Images)
-Friendship with ASEAN began in 1973. It all started when cheap synthetic rubber, of which Japan had greatly increased its production, competed with natural rubber from ASEAN countries in the market, and a dialogue began over the issue of synthetic rubber exports. What kind of relationship have Japan and the ASEAN region built over the 50 years since then?
Hayakawa: Following the ASEAN-Japan Synthetic Rubber Forum, the announcement of the Fukuda Doctrine, which would guide Japan’s diplomacy in Southeast Asia, was extremely significant. In addition, Japan deepened its friendship and cooperation with the ASEAN region through the first ASEAN-Japan Summit and Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, and since the 1980s, through cooperation in human resource development, which is the foundation for nation-building.
Although there was a time when Japan was more prosperous in the growth process of the ASEAN countries, the two countries have always been inseparable, literally like cherished neighbors, friends, and childhood companions of each other. There are diplomatic perspectives that emphasize the importance of Southeast Asia in the context of security in the Indo-Pacific region or in the context of de-China, such as “China + 1” (diversified investment outside of China), but even without such factors, the relationship between Japan and the ASEAN region, which aims to complement each other and to develop together, will never change. I believe that the framework of ASEAN is a key element in this region. The role of the ASEAN framework in the region has been extremely significant. If ASEAN had not been established, the political and economic stability and growth of the region would have been very different.
JICA’s cooperation with ASEAN countries, believing in their growth
-What kind of cooperation has JICA provided over the past 50 years?
Hayakawa: Since the 1970s, JICA has been supporting infrastructure development in Southeast Asia, including roads, airports, railroads, dams, power plants, irrigation, water and sewage systems, and other infrastructure that support economies and lifestyles. These have undergone renovation and still serve as the foundation for people’s daily lives and production activities. In these areas, we have not only provided funds, but have also cooperated in the planning process and actively transferred necessary technologies. In addition, we have cooperated in all areas, including basic education, industrial human resource development, legal system development, peacebuilding, and health and medical care. In recent years, the JICA has continued to provide assistance in a wide range of areas to meet the needs of the ASEAN region, including support for new coronary disease outbreaks.
In Phnom Penh, Cambodia, we supported the renovation of an aging water purification plant and improved its water supply capacity. This has improved water quality and enabled people to drink tap water safely. In Thailand, we have been cooperating in the development of the eastern coastal area, which is driving the country’s economic growth. Photo: Laem Chabang Port, Thailand’s largest international bay area (Photo: Okuno Yasuhiko/JICA)
-How do you evaluate the results of JICA’s cooperation?
Hayakawa: Cooperation between Japan and Southeast Asia is multi-layered, including business and private sector-based cooperation and exchanges, and although ODA played a part, I think it is fair to say that overall Japan’s cooperation was successful, I believe that JICA’s cooperation has contributed greatly to the development and economic growth of the ASEAN region by supporting the development of people and countries and serving as a base for the development of the private sector in each country. What is more important is Japan’s long-term cooperation with ASEAN countries, believing in their growth.
Today, Indonesia is among the middle-income countries, following Malaysia and Thailand, with Vietnam and the Philippines following close behind. However, in the 1980s and 1990s, the international community was not sure that the ASEAN countries would continue to develop steadily. Although some of the countries achieved high growth once, they were then severely damaged by the Asian currency crisis of 1997, and the international development cooperation community at the time could only see many developing countries relying on aid to reduce poverty, and could not envision a path for the ASEAN countries to grow.
However, we never doubted that the ASEAN region would develop in the same way that Japan has grown so much since the end of World War II. That is why JICA has been working with the ASEAN countries to develop a vision and a plan to achieve it, while staying close to their own aspirations for growth. I believe that the attitude of taking a long-term perspective, respecting the autonomy of the governments and people of the ASEAN countries, and working together on the ground to promote nation-building and people-building is what is most appreciated. This attitude is by no means limited to ODA, but is shared by many Japanese stakeholders, including private companies, NGOs, and researchers, and I believe that this has led to the level of Japanophilia and trust in Japan among the people of Southeast Asia.
As part of Malaysia’s policy toward the East, which takes its cue from Japan’s modernization, the two countries have jointly promoted various human resource development activities. Photo shows JICA training on water quality survey in a river (Photo by Khairul Fadzilah binti Mohd. Omar)
-One of JICA’s priority areas for ASEAN is “Strengthening ASEAN Connectivity”. What kind of cooperation is this?
Hayakawa: One of the reasons why ASEAN has developed so well is that the region has remained stable without major conflicts since the end of the war in the Indochina Peninsula that lasted until the 1990s. Under the call to “move from the battlefield to the marketplace,” governments have engaged in dialogue, sometimes without reaching agreement, and when necessary, have come together as one to create the ASEAN framework. Regional stability is the very source of growth. In order to maintain this development, it is important to enhance cohesion so that the region can remain conflict-free, and to share a long-term vision for the region.
JICA is working on the following three key concepts: physical connectivity through the development of infrastructure such as roads and bridges connecting the member countries; institutional connectivity through customs clearance systems that facilitate logistics; and human resources development, training, and human networking among universities and research institutes, with an emphasis on people-to-people links, JICA supports efforts to enhance regional cohesion from three perspectives: physical connectivity through the development of infrastructure such as roads and bridges connecting countries; institutional connectivity through customs clearance systems that facilitate logistics; and people-to-people connectivity through the development of higher and industrial human resources, training, and the strengthening of human networks among universities and research institutions, with an emphasis on people-to-people links.
Collaboration with the private sector is essential for further problem solving
-What are some of the challenges that the ASEAN region has faced in recent years?
Hayakawa: In addition to the problem of “intra-regional disparities,” the region has recently been facing new challenges such as “aging,” “urban issues,” and “climate change. It has also been pointed out that countries that continue to develop within the region may fall into the “middle-income trap,” where growth stalls after becoming middle-income countries. JICA is committed to helping these countries overcome this trap by improving the business environment and supporting the development of high value-added industries.
Since the private sector in Japan is thought to have a great deal of knowledge on these issues, we believe that it is essential to deepen cooperation with the private sector more than ever before in order to solve these issues. In particular, the ASEAN region has much stronger ties with the Japanese business community than other regions, and the number of companies that have advanced into the region, the amount of investment, and the human networks in the region are far greater than in other regions. The corporate side is well versed in the trends in the ASEAN region, so we need to listen carefully to the voices of the corporate people as well as those of the partner country in order to get an accurate picture of the facts.
JICA would like to expand JICA’s targeted cooperation by involving external resources such as private-sector funds, technology, and knowledge through public-private partnerships, and at the same time, we would like to consider supporting companies to improve their activities from the viewpoint of development and sustainability, for example, in order to create even more effective cooperation. We would also like to consider supporting the activities of individual companies to improve their activities from the viewpoints of development and sustainability.
In Thailand, where the population is rapidly aging, JICA is supporting the institutionalization of nursing care services and health promotion activities for the elderly (Photo: Shinichi Hisano) In Laos, an expansion project of a hydroelectric power plant with low environmental impact is underway with Japanese grant aid to meet the increasing demand for electricity in the country (Photo: Shinichi Hisano)
As a true partner that grows together
-What role do the ASEAN countries expect Japan to play in the future?
Hayakawa: I feel the expectation that we will continue to be a true and reliable partner for mutual growth as we have been in the past. This is the very essence of the “Fukuda Doctrine,” which states that “Japan and ASEAN are equal partners” and that “Japan and ASEAN will build a relationship of ‘heart to heart contact'” and “Japan and ASEAN are equal partners. I believe that this ASEAN-oriented foreign policy, expressed in 1977, was at the time both a norm and a goal, and now it has become a reality.
There has also been a significant increase in the traffic of travelers and workers to and from ASEAN countries, and the region has become more firmly connected than other regions in trade, investment, and finance, as well as in academic research and pop culture. We believe that JICA can play a more catalytic role in this context.
-In light of the expectations from ASEAN, how will JICA deal with ASEAN in the future?
Hayakawa: It is important that we work together with ASEAN in the future to develop the region as a whole and to solve global issues beyond the Southeast Asian region. There is a growing movement to cooperate with partner countries such as Singapore and Thailand for the development of the ASEAN region as a whole, not limited to each partner country, such as by working individually and implementing third-country training programs together. Singapore and Thailand, as well as Indonesia and Malaysia, have established their own development cooperation organizations, and although still limited in scale, are growing into “donor countries.
In such a situation, it is important to listen to the other party with a more humble attitude than before. In addition to Singapore and Malaysia, of course, there are other ASEAN countries that have already shifted to a situation where they can raise funds from financial markets by issuing government bonds and other means based on their own creditworthiness. Nevertheless, the reason why people still want to work with JICA to solve their problems is because they see value in the dialogue itself, in creating a vision for growth together, rather than just providing financial assistance or technology. If we can then work together to address a variety of local issues, and then work together to resolve global issues, we will be able to leverage the effectiveness of JICA’s cooperation.
JICA will continue to be a “true partner” in supporting the growth of the entire region and creating new value together to solve regional and global issues, while listening to the voices of ASEAN countries and humbly learning from Southeast Asia’s outstanding aspects.
© Source JICA
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