ASEAN-Japan trade up 17%
ASEAN-Japan trade up 17%
Bilateral trade between ASEAN and Japan reached $240.2 billion, up 17.2 per cent year-on-year. Foreign direct investment inflow from Japan in 2021 was $12 billion, up 3.5 per cent year-on-year, making Japan the third-largest trading partner of ASEAN.
The trade volumes were revealed at the 25th ASEAN-Japan summit on November 12 in the presence of Prime Minister Hun Sen and his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida.
Joined them at the summit were Bruneian Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, Indonesian President Joko Widodo, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, Lao Prime Minister Phankham Viphavanh, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, Malaysian speaker of the House of Representatives Azhar Azizan Harun and ASEAN secretary-general Lim Jock Hoi.
ASEAN and Japan established an informal dialogue in 1973. It was formalised in March 1977, with the convening of the ASEAN-Japan Forum.
Since then, significant progress has been made in all sectors, including security and politics, and in economic, financial and socio-cultural cooperation.
Japan joined the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC) in July 2004 and became a dialogue partner, appointing an ambassador to ASEAN at the ASEAN Secretariat in the Indonesian capital Jakarta. The Japanese Mission to ASEAN was established in May 2011.
