AOI Joichi
Vice Chairman
Keidanren
I was in China as a member of the Keidanren mission from April 9 to 15. This was Keidanren's first mission to the country since that led by Toshiwo Doko 19 years ago. For me, too, it had been quite a while since I was last in China. We visited Beijing, Shanghai and Suzhou, receiving a warm-hearted welcome in each city. During the week-long mission, I was impressed at every turn not just by the speed of China's economic development, but by the evident enthusiasm of the Chinese people and their confidence in the ongoing transformation of their country's economy.
The fruits of our visit included meetings with President Jiang Zemin and other leaders, which afforded valuable opportunities for exchange of opinions. Also, visits to factories in Shanghai Pudong New Area, China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park and Suzhou New District enabled us to grasp the actual situation.
Keidanren has proposed three projects which will be concrete expressions of the Sino-Japanese relationship well into the 21st century. They concern the environment and energy, development of the Yangtze basin, and a new bullet train line. The Chinese government has agreed to the proposals and also requested Japan's cooperation in agriculture. Since China's approach to agricultural issues will influence global food supplies, Japan should extend maximum cooperation to China in this field. As items Keidanren proposed and agriculture are interrelated, an over-arching approach is desirable.
In my view there are three prerequisites for China's economic development, first, rapid improvement of the economic and social infrastructure, as envisaged in Keidanren's proposals; second, improvement of the legal and accounting frameworks, the management system, and other aspects of the "soft" infrastructure; and third, reform of the hundred thousand or so state-owned enterprises. Clearly, the opportunities for Japan to cooperate are wide-ranging.
Our visit to China coincided with the arrival of spring. The landscape from Shanghai to Suzhou was carpeted with flowers. Numerous new houses are also springing up, and it is obvious that development is surging ahead. For me, the clear bright eyes of elementary school children who warmly welcomed us at the gate of the industrial park in Suzhou were eloquent testimony to China's development.