Opening Speech by Ambassador Oka at the Virtual Conference “Balancing Priorities of the Indo-Pacific: Connectivity and Prosperity”
2020/10/21
Yang Berbahagia Datuk Dr Sabirin Ja’afar, Director-General, Maritime Institute of Malaysia,
His Excellency Mr Andrew Goledzinowski,
Australian High Commissioner to Malaysia,
Honourable Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Tuan Tuan dan Puan Puan,
Good morning and Selamat Pagi.
On behalf of the Government of Japan, I am very pleased to join this Virtual Conference, despite the challenge posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. I wish to convey my sincere appreciation to MIMA and Australian High Commission for making this event happen today. I would also like to thank all the distinguished panelists and moderators for taking time to participate, from near and far, in today’s conference.
Last year’s conference focused on geopolitical aspect and emphasized the importance of freedom of navigation and international order based on international laws including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Building on successful discussion at last year’s conference, today’s conference will also address economic prosperity, improvement of connectivity, and revitalization of the economy in the region.
We never expected the spread of COVID-19 pandemic last year. COVID-19 has disrupted every aspect of our livelihood, the movement of goods and movement of people. But the severity of the disruption has made us realize the importance of connectivity for economic growth and the prosperity in the region. It is timely and fitting to discuss the aspect of prosperity and connectivity under the vision of “Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP)” so that we can fully understand its concept and its significance to the region.
Now, the new Japanese Prime Minister SUGA is making overseas debut by visiting Vietnam and Indonesia. He has been the right hand man of Prime Minister Abe for the last eight years, and we don’t expect major change in the policies under his premiership. In fact, the two countries, Vietnam and Indonesia, were the same destination as the first overseas visit by Prime Minister Abe. By visiting South East Asia countries first, he is demonstrating his firm commitment to South East Asia and his unwavering commitment to FOIP. In his first policy speech overseas at Hanoi, he stated that ASEAN and Japan fully share fundamental principles such as the rule of law, openness, freedom, transparency and inclusiveness, and that he strongly supports “ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP)”, as it shares many fundamental commonalities with the FOIP and he assured he will work hand in hand with ASEAN as equal partner to establish the rule of law in seas and oceans. We are now working with ASEAN partners so that we can jointly announce concrete projects regarding the cooperation between FOIP and AOIP during the Japan-ASEAN Summit scheduled in November.
It is gratifying to notice that concept of FOIP has been steadily accepted by wider part of the international community, including Europe and North America. We should not forget the importance of Africa for FOIP. It was in Kenya that Prime Minister Abe launched his vision for FOIP during the TICAD (Tokyo International Conference on African Development) VI summit. Further, TICAD7 in 2019 welcomed ‘G20 Principles for Quality Infrastructure Investment’ of G20 Osaka Summit, which mentioned about the importance of ensuring debt sustainability when it talked about important principles for quality infrastructure to bring about physical connectivity.
Before talking briefly about the some of the specific elements of FOIP, particularly with regard to connectivity, I would like to emphasize that FOIP is not about bringing about any division in the region. On the contrary, FOIP is intended to be a unifying vision, a vision which will unite the countries in the region around the fundamental principles of rule of law and enhancing connectivity to achieve safety, security and prosperity in the region. We wish to continue expanding our cooperation for FOIP and AOIP by all the countries in the region. Because the concept of FOIP is open to all the countries who uphold such basic principles.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
With regards to the connectivity, we have promoted hard connectivity by bringing about “quality infrastructure”. The terminal 1 building of the Kuala Lumpur international airport has been constructed through G to G cooperation with Malaysia. We have recently completed the first trans-state raw water transporting underground pipeline, which is the longest among ASEAN countries, to alleviate the water shortage in the Klang Valley areas. In addition to such “physical” connectivity, Japan has also made similarly eager efforts to enhance “institutional” connectivity or “soft” connectivity. These would include putting in place regional trade and investment arrangements which Japan has been pursuing with ASEAN partners to reduce tariff and non-tariff barriers, and people-to-people exchanges for education, human resources development. We consider softer connectivity as important as the hard connectivity for achieving the prosperity in the region. Particularly in the light of the disruption that regional and global supply chains have suffered from due to COVID-19, it would be imperative to strengthen the resilience of supply chains by enhancing connectivities in the post COVID-19 recovery phase.
For many years, Japan has supported the “Look East Policy” in Malaysia, which will celebrate its 40th anniversary in 2022. Under the policy, more than 8,000 Malaysian students have studied higher education in Japan and about 18,000 Malaysians received training in Japan. They are now at the forefront of the Malaysian society both in the government and in the business. In addition, we have established in Malaysia JMTI (Japan Malaysia Technology Institute) in 1998 and MJIIT (Malaysia Japan International Institute of Technology) in 2011 through G-to-G cooperation, to bring about Japanese style engineering education in Malaysia. Additionally, Japan has been conducting capacity building training for Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) and Royal Malaysian Customs Department to share their experience for the purpose of border security and control as well as smoother customs clearance.
I see many footprints of efforts done to enhance connectivity in the region and these efforts are regarded as integral to enhance the connectivity in the region under the concept of FOIP. To deepen our shared understanding about FOIP so that we can work together to undertake concreted steps and actions to bring about what is envisioned by the concept of FOIP and AOIP, we wish to have views and ideas from the experts. I will all of you a fruitful discussion today.
Thank you.
His Excellency Mr Andrew Goledzinowski,
Australian High Commissioner to Malaysia,
Honourable Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Tuan Tuan dan Puan Puan,
Good morning and Selamat Pagi.
On behalf of the Government of Japan, I am very pleased to join this Virtual Conference, despite the challenge posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. I wish to convey my sincere appreciation to MIMA and Australian High Commission for making this event happen today. I would also like to thank all the distinguished panelists and moderators for taking time to participate, from near and far, in today’s conference.
Last year’s conference focused on geopolitical aspect and emphasized the importance of freedom of navigation and international order based on international laws including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Building on successful discussion at last year’s conference, today’s conference will also address economic prosperity, improvement of connectivity, and revitalization of the economy in the region.
We never expected the spread of COVID-19 pandemic last year. COVID-19 has disrupted every aspect of our livelihood, the movement of goods and movement of people. But the severity of the disruption has made us realize the importance of connectivity for economic growth and the prosperity in the region. It is timely and fitting to discuss the aspect of prosperity and connectivity under the vision of “Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP)” so that we can fully understand its concept and its significance to the region.
Now, the new Japanese Prime Minister SUGA is making overseas debut by visiting Vietnam and Indonesia. He has been the right hand man of Prime Minister Abe for the last eight years, and we don’t expect major change in the policies under his premiership. In fact, the two countries, Vietnam and Indonesia, were the same destination as the first overseas visit by Prime Minister Abe. By visiting South East Asia countries first, he is demonstrating his firm commitment to South East Asia and his unwavering commitment to FOIP. In his first policy speech overseas at Hanoi, he stated that ASEAN and Japan fully share fundamental principles such as the rule of law, openness, freedom, transparency and inclusiveness, and that he strongly supports “ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP)”, as it shares many fundamental commonalities with the FOIP and he assured he will work hand in hand with ASEAN as equal partner to establish the rule of law in seas and oceans. We are now working with ASEAN partners so that we can jointly announce concrete projects regarding the cooperation between FOIP and AOIP during the Japan-ASEAN Summit scheduled in November.
It is gratifying to notice that concept of FOIP has been steadily accepted by wider part of the international community, including Europe and North America. We should not forget the importance of Africa for FOIP. It was in Kenya that Prime Minister Abe launched his vision for FOIP during the TICAD (Tokyo International Conference on African Development) VI summit. Further, TICAD7 in 2019 welcomed ‘G20 Principles for Quality Infrastructure Investment’ of G20 Osaka Summit, which mentioned about the importance of ensuring debt sustainability when it talked about important principles for quality infrastructure to bring about physical connectivity.
Before talking briefly about the some of the specific elements of FOIP, particularly with regard to connectivity, I would like to emphasize that FOIP is not about bringing about any division in the region. On the contrary, FOIP is intended to be a unifying vision, a vision which will unite the countries in the region around the fundamental principles of rule of law and enhancing connectivity to achieve safety, security and prosperity in the region. We wish to continue expanding our cooperation for FOIP and AOIP by all the countries in the region. Because the concept of FOIP is open to all the countries who uphold such basic principles.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
With regards to the connectivity, we have promoted hard connectivity by bringing about “quality infrastructure”. The terminal 1 building of the Kuala Lumpur international airport has been constructed through G to G cooperation with Malaysia. We have recently completed the first trans-state raw water transporting underground pipeline, which is the longest among ASEAN countries, to alleviate the water shortage in the Klang Valley areas. In addition to such “physical” connectivity, Japan has also made similarly eager efforts to enhance “institutional” connectivity or “soft” connectivity. These would include putting in place regional trade and investment arrangements which Japan has been pursuing with ASEAN partners to reduce tariff and non-tariff barriers, and people-to-people exchanges for education, human resources development. We consider softer connectivity as important as the hard connectivity for achieving the prosperity in the region. Particularly in the light of the disruption that regional and global supply chains have suffered from due to COVID-19, it would be imperative to strengthen the resilience of supply chains by enhancing connectivities in the post COVID-19 recovery phase.
For many years, Japan has supported the “Look East Policy” in Malaysia, which will celebrate its 40th anniversary in 2022. Under the policy, more than 8,000 Malaysian students have studied higher education in Japan and about 18,000 Malaysians received training in Japan. They are now at the forefront of the Malaysian society both in the government and in the business. In addition, we have established in Malaysia JMTI (Japan Malaysia Technology Institute) in 1998 and MJIIT (Malaysia Japan International Institute of Technology) in 2011 through G-to-G cooperation, to bring about Japanese style engineering education in Malaysia. Additionally, Japan has been conducting capacity building training for Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) and Royal Malaysian Customs Department to share their experience for the purpose of border security and control as well as smoother customs clearance.
I see many footprints of efforts done to enhance connectivity in the region and these efforts are regarded as integral to enhance the connectivity in the region under the concept of FOIP. To deepen our shared understanding about FOIP so that we can work together to undertake concreted steps and actions to bring about what is envisioned by the concept of FOIP and AOIP, we wish to have views and ideas from the experts. I will all of you a fruitful discussion today.
Thank you.