Japan intends to extend 'Abe's Economics' to ASEAN
Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is visiting Singapore, said in a keynote speech at the 33rd Singapore Lecture on July 26, 2013 that Japan intends to expand its economic space in ASEAN while revitalizing its own economy. While revitalizing its own economy, Japan intends to expand its economic space in ASEAN and extend the scope of its "Abe-economics" economic policy to the ASEAN region.
Abe likened economic cooperation between Japan and ASEAN to the "twin engines" of an airplane, arguing that the economic growth of either ASEAN or Japan would be in the best interest of the other. In his speech, he explained the economic revitalization policy of "Abe's Economics", which consists of "three arrows", i.e., ultra-loose monetary policy, huge fiscal stimulus measures and economic reforms, and said that Japan will focus on the third arrow, i.e., economic reforms, and that ASEAN will play a very important role in this regard. ASEAN will play a very important role in this regard. He said Japan will transform itself into a more open economy in the future, not only welcoming overseas investment and overseas companies, but also changing its own sectors such as electricity, agriculture and healthcare, prompting them to innovate aggressively and look for markets outside of Japan, with ASEAN being a major target market.
Abe believes that ASEAN is a representative region in the 21st century, with a large middle-class consumer market, and that the region is being built up with a variety of new air, sea and land infrastructures, and that the ties between ASEAN member countries are bound to become even closer, which will lead to an overall expansion of the region's economy. Against this backdrop, Japan hopes to export its systems and technologies to improve the region's infrastructure network. He added that Singapore, with its impressive infrastructure, creativity and management technology team, can create "dream cities" for the rest of the world if it combines its systems and technologies with those of Japanese companies.
Abe's visit, which included Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines, was his third to an ASEAN member country since he returned to office in December 2012, after visiting Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia in January 2013 and Myanmar in May. Abe's visits to seven of ASEAN's 10 member states within a year show the high priority he attaches to the ASEAN region. In a joint press conference with Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Abe also said he intends to promote strategic diplomacy in the ASEAN region, focusing on strengthening ties and economic cooperation between Japan and ASEAN, and hoped that the visit would embrace ASEAN's dynamism while revitalizing Japan's economy and further promote Japan's cooperation with countries that ****enjoy the fundamental values of law, human rights and freedom.