2 Promotion of the Japanese Infrastructure System in Overseas Business Expansion

In order to capture overseas infrastructure demand mainly in emerging countries and promote infrastructure exports by Japanese companies, the “Ministerial Meeting on Strategy relating to Infrastructure Export and Economic Cooperation,” comprising relevant cabinet ministers and the Chief Cabinet Secretary serving as chair, was established in 2013. A total of 49 meetings have been held as of December 2020. The Meeting had discussed annual revisions to and follow-ups for the Infrastructure System Export Strategy, which was formulated in 2013. In December 2020, the Meeting formulated the “Infrastructure System Overseas Promotion Strategy 2025” (hereinafter “the New Strategy”), which lays out new five-year goals for 2021 based on the recent changes in the relevant situations. The New Strategy establishes a policy for taking specific steps toward garnering 34 trillion yen in infrastructure system orders in 2025 by promoting the achievement of three goals, namely (1) achieving economic growth, (2) contributing to achieving the SDGs, and (3) realizing the Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy (FOIP). The current key issues of the New Strategy involve a focused approach to combating COVID-19, contributing to carbon neutrality, tightening export policy on coal-fired power, and promoting the use of digital technologies and data.

Japan has also been conducting trade promotion by the Government and making systemic improvements aimed at the active use of public financing schemes, and has reviewed the process for audits involving JICA overseas investment loans. With regard to diplomatic missions overseas, MOFA has been appointing “Officers in charge of Infrastructure Projects” to gather and consolidate information on infrastructure projects in diplomatic missions overseas in countries of focus (200 personnel at 97 diplomatic missions overseas in 75 countries as of the end of December 2020). This initiative has also shown results.