Suu Kyi visit highlights Japan’s push to raise profile, tap business opportunities in Myanmar

TOKYO — Japan’s long-deferred aspirations for a larger role in Myanmar are getting a boost this coming week with a visit by Nobel Peace Prize laureate and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The visit by Suu Kyi, in Japan for the first time in 27 years, is highlighting Japan’s interest in helping to craft a blueprint for Myanmar’s economy and tapping its growth potential.

So far, Japan’s investments and involvement lag far behind those of China and India. But that is fast changing, after Tokyo forgave about half of Myanmar’s more than $6 billion dollars in debt, clearing the way for renewed international lending to the impoverished Southeast Asian country.

A high-powered delegation of business leaders, including top executives from Toyota Motor Corp., Hitachi Ltd. and Sumitomo Chemical, toured Myanmar, also known as Burma, in February and pledged to cooperate in encouraging more investment.

Although Suu Kyi is not in government, she is widely respected, especially in Japan, where she is expected to meet with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other top officials and give speeches at two of Japan’s most prestigious universities during her seven day visit that starts Saturday.

“Aside from being the opposition leader and an icon for democracy and political freedom, she is a goodwill ambassador. The idea is to encourage the Japanese government and corporate Japan to support Myanmar,” said Jeff Kingston, a professor at Tokyo’s Temple University.

The handover of power by Myanmar’s military junta in 2011 to a nominally civilian government ushered in sweeping political and economic reforms, including releasing prominent political prisoners and allowing Suu Kyi, who spend years under house arrest, to run in parliamentary by-elections.

As of late February, Japan was the 11th largest investor in Myanmar, with $270 million in overall investments, way behind the $14.2 billion committed by China and $9.6 billion by Thailand, the top two sources with 33 percent and 23 percent respectively of total foreign direct investment.

Although it scaled back most business activity and cut government aid when the U.S. and other Western nations imposed sanctions in 2003 after the previous, military regime put Suu Kyi under house arrest, Japan did not impose sanctions on Myanmar.

Suu Kyi and the current Japanese government thus are still developing relations, said Eitaro Kojima of the Japan External Trade Organization, who lived in Myanmar for years.

“We need to understand each other,” he said.

Over the past decade, Japan continued small-scale humanitarian assistance to Myanmar as part of its policy of engagement with the regime. Many Japanese businesses also kept their offices and business registrations. The maintenance of commercial and government relations is proving vital now that Myanmar is embarking on its economic reforms

Japan’s biggest contribution so far to Myanmar’s economic reform effort has been the debt forgiveness arrangement, involving billions of dollars in bridge loans by Japanese banks, that enabled the Asian Development Bank and World Bank to resume lending for crucial humanitarian and infrastructure projects.

source: Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/suu-kyi-visit-highlights-japans-push-to-raise-profile-tap-business-opportunities-in-myanmar/2013/04/12/9f072228-a34b-11e2-bd52-614156372695_story.html