Japan's economic role to remain influential in Asia: Former envoy

Lilian Budianto ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Tue, 11/04/2008 10:41 AM  |  World

Japan will continue playing a significant role in Asia with its economic establishment, despite the ascendant China and India also vying for greater influence, a seminar heard Monday.

Former Indonesian ambassador to Japan Wisber Loeis said new challenges in Asia could be a litmus test for Japan's economic influence, but insisted its long-established and wide range of economic ties with most Asian countries were key factors in weathering the challenge.

"Asia is a very dynamic region. We can't really say China and India have replaced Japan. I see it more as the restructuring of relations to cope with the different challenges nowadays," Wisber said during the seminar.

The two-day seminar, organized by the Japanese Embassy, is being held at the Jakarta International Expo in Kemayoran to celebrate 50 years of relations between Japan and Indonesia.

"Japan has already established 50 years of relations with Indonesia and it has witnessed the growth of our nation since the very beginning," Wisber said.

"During that period, we have seen many changes in the nature of our relationship with Japan, but in all those periods Japan continued to be at the center of our progress."

However, he went on, Japan might have lost to some extent its influence on the international economic and political stage as a result of lingering economic stagnancy, aggravated by looming global recession. But he said it would be premature to say that the most developed economy in Asia had been replaced by China or India.

At the same event, Nobuhide Minorikawa, Japanese parliamentary vice minister for foreign affairs, said bilateral relations between the two countries rested on economic cooperation, with a wider aim of securing stability in the developing region.

Bilateral trade last year was valued at US$30 billion.

When Indonesia was battered by the 1997 financial crisis, Japan contributed $5 billion to an IMF-led rescue package, totaling $43 billion, for Indonesia.

"Japan was very concerned about the economic recovery of countries in this region, because the instability of Asia would be to the detriment of any other nation," he said.

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