Japan to develop local human resources for logistics hubs in Laos
Japan to develop local human resources for logistics hubs in Laos
Through cooperation with the National University of Laos and Savannakhet University, next spring Japan will launch courses in which local students will learn about the logistics employed by Japanese companies.
We are steadily fulfilling this pledge in Laos. Laos is like a land bridge that connects different countries, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said yesterday on the occasion of the Asean-BIS in Vientiane.
But we want this to go beyond simply acquiring the know-how behind meticulous logistics, he told members of the business community who are driving the economies of Laos and Asean.
Instead, b y thinking together, we want students to become equipped with the power of building up kaizen in their respective workplaces. That is the wish behind these courses.
We would like the people who have studied here to use their experience to immediate effect in Japanese companies that have logistics hubs in Laos.
We hope they will come to manage local subsidiaries in the future. Moreover, we wish them to become leaders in driving Laos' industrial development.
He said Laos can not only develop through the coming and going of neighbouring countries' goods but can also take a further leap forward by increasing value-added and exporting goods which are made in Laos.'
Let us consider Laos' ancient capital, Luang Prabang - a World Cultural Heritage Site, which a large number of tourists visit every year, Abe said.
The morning market in Phousi boasts arrays of freshly picked vegetables and fruit sourced from right nearby. Is there no way to deliver this produce, fresh, across the Asean market, with its 600 million people? he asked.
Japan aims at cooperation through which the people of Asean can lead more prosperous daily lives.
Let us walk together towards a future when, across Asean, fresh produce from Laos and all its other members comes and goes freely without question, he said.
What will bring this about, in addition to human resources, is transportation infrastructure connecting producing regions with markets, along with enhanced transparency and facilitation of trade procedures.
Here, there are great hopes for the AEC, he said.
In addition to eliminating tariffs, progress is underway in transitioning to a single window' for customs clearance procedures.
Abe also recalled December 1965, when five members of the very first corps of Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCVs) headed to Laos. One of the members, Ms Masako Hoshino, taught the Japanese language here. Her students were highly aspirational, with broad personal networks and opportunities for interaction.
The members of her Lao host family supported each other equally, regardless of gender. She felt very keenly that Japan also had many things to learn from Laos, Abe said. Even after finishing her mission as a member of the volunteers, she remained in Laos for some time.
More than 50 years have passed since then, and Japan has now dispatched some 40 thousand JOCVs to 88 countries around the world. At this very moment, there are Japanese all around the world living amongst local communities and putting their heads together with local people as they continue to carry forward this cooperation.
For more than 55 years, Japan has been cultivating human resources for industry all throughout the world, centered on Asean. We have fostered 380,000 such workers in total, of which half have been in the countries of Asean, he said.
Japan will also push forward resolutely with the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership as well, to achieve a high-quality agreement.
Japan has learned many things in the course of its history of cooperation with Asean, leading to its current form.
It is now looking forward to when investment from Japan and across the world increases even further, and Asean continues its economic development.
