The first company I worked for was a Japanese multinational. In this company, I was given the opportunity to visit the London sales office, represented ASEAN on a billion dollar negotiation deal in Tokyo, travel to Singapore on average once every quarter for meetings and trainings and even visited its manufacturing plant in Perak on many occasions. They hired me in July 1998, amid the ASEAN financial crisis and throughout my 4 years there, I have experienced lots of career growth.
Japanese companies are a good place to start one’s career. I am glad they hired me out of 220 people who applied. Yes, that was 1998 and the number of job advertisements on newspaper were very few and very precious. You MUST work very hard and because of that, you learn a lot within a short span of time. So, when it comes to Japanese companies, it will always have a special place in my heart. Now, we have some good news.
Japan manufacturers are not new in many ASEAN member countries. Good news for us. More will be coming soon and the Japanese government is encouraging this too. Article in japantimes.co.jp Japan will launch a ¥23.5 billion (RM958 million) program which will hep firms diversify their supply chains by financially assisting the construction of production facilities as well as feasibility studies in ASEAN countries.
An Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry official said that this will reduce heavy reliance on production in China. It said, “Even before the virus outbreak, there has been a growing need for Japanese firms to set up production bases in the ASEAN region. (The subsidy scheme) will help our country build better relationships with ASEAN countries, too.” Japanese firms have tapped the Association of Southeast Asian Nations for alternative output bases under the “China plus one” strategy. Please do read the full article here: Article in japantimes.co.jp
Assuming this subsidies will bring new manufacturing bases of 10 times the value of the subsidy, we are looking at RM9.5 billion to be invested into manufacturing plants here within ASEAN within a short period of time yeah. If we are speaking about increasing the manufacturing bases and reducing reliance, this is part of risk-management and when it comes to risk management, let’s understand that it should not take many years. Else, what risk are we talking about yeah.
The ASEAN members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Never mind where in ASEAN yeah. It’s great news for ASEAN actually. What ASEAN members should do is to continue co-operation and integration between member countries. Speaking of just tourism after COVID-19 has subsided for example, we are 622 million strong. Assuming just 10% wants to travel around, that’s already 62 million tourists. Happy setting up your plants here!
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