'Flood prevention, relaxed rules key to luring Japanese investors'

In an exclusive interview with The Nation, JCC president Minoru Furusawa said that with the expectation of continued sluggish growth in the mother country, many Japanese enterprises were looking for opportunities in other countries.
“Japanese investors are now leaving Japan, [and] Thailand is one of the most favoured destinations. The shrinking market and slower economic growth in [their own] country have encouraged Japanese enterprises, especially small and medium-sizes enterprises, to invest overseas, so they need more support for starting investment in Thailand, particularly in the service sector,” Furusawa said.
He pointed out that the largest number of Japanese consultations for overseas investment were still regarding Thailand.
Last year, such consultations for Thailand increased by 2.7 times compared with 2010 figures, to 191.
Most of these prospective investors are eyeing service businesses, including consultancies for manufacturers.
Furusawa said the Thai government needed to focus more on medium-to-long-term flood-prevention measures, as more than 400 Japanese factories were damaged in last year’s disaster. About 80 per cent of them have recovered, but they need to be assured that the problem will not be repeated in the future.
The JCC also wants the government to solve the labour shortage, an issue that has been raised by the private sector many times, not just Japanese but other foreign investors as well.
To help tackle this problem, Japanese investors want the government to allow them to employ foreign workers by relaxing Board of Investment regulations.
Also, the country needs to improve the efficiency of its customs procedures to ensure the Kingdom’s competitiveness under the upcoming Asean Economic Community, the chamber president said.
Japanese investors also hope for political stability in Thailand.
Furusawa said another destination with high potential for Japanese investors was Indonesia, as it has a large market size and emerging economic growth.
Myanmar is also a top candidate for drawing investment from Japan. However, Furusawa said Myanmar still needed about five to 10 years for infrastructure development.
According to a survey by the JCC and the Japan External Trade Organisation Bangkok in the third quarter of this year, Myanmar is the most popular site for new production bases among Japanese investors, followed by Indonesia, Vietnam and Cambodia. Indonesia is the most interesting market for future trading, followed by Vietnam, India, Japan and Myanmar.
The Bangkok JCC has 1,430 members, the most at any Japanese Chamber of Commerce in Asean, accounting for about 30 per cent of the approximately 5,000 JCC members in Southeast Asia.
The number of members in Thailand is the second-largest in Asia, after more than 2,000 in China.