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Speech by Mr. Shoichiro Toyoda, Chairman of Japan-China Investment Promotion Organization and Honorary President of Toyota Motor Corporation
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组委会新闻中心
2008-9-8 11:17:00 |
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The Honorable Wang Qishan, Vice Premier, People’s Republic of China,
The Honorable Chen Deming, Minister of Commerce,
Distinguished leaders of Fujian Province and Xiamen City,
Distinguished representatives of the United Nations and business leaders from around the world,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good morning. Thank you for the introduction. My name is Shoichiro Toyoda. It is a great pleasure for me to begin my speech by expressing my heartfelt congratulations on the occasion of the 12th China International Fair for Investment and Trade. It is also my great honor to have been given the opportunity to speak at this history-making and authoritative international investment forum. I was given a similar opportunity eight years ago and two years ago as well. Thus, this is the third time I will be giving a speech here.
Before I begin, I would like to express my heartfelt condolences to the victims of the great Sichuan earthquake that occurred in May. I sincerely hope that the disaster areas will be reconstructed as soon as possible. Japan is a country that is prone to earthquakes, and I hope that Japan’s know-how in earthquake disaster reconstruction will help those areas recover from the disaster. Looking at a brighter event, I would like to extend my warmest congratulations to you on the success of the Olympic Games in Beijing. I attended the opening ceremony on August 8 in the national stadium and was deeply moved by a magnificent panorama presented by the ceremony. It seemed to be a distillation of the development of China from ancient times to the present. The following day, I also watched some judo matches, I felt in my bones the excitement aroused by the Olympic Games. As you know, the Paralympics started on September 6th, and I also would like to express my wishes for its success.
Today I am giving my speech as the third chairman of the Japan-China Investment Promotion Organization. Let me begin by briefly introducing our organization. Its establishment was proposed in 1990 by Chinese and Japanese leaders, specifically Chinese Premier Li Peng and Japanese Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita, to improve the investment climate and promote investment in China. At the time, few Japanese companies had launched operations in China. The first chairman of the Organization was Kisaburo Ikeura from the Industrial Bank of Japan, and the second was Hiroshi Saito from Nippon Steel Corporation. At almost the same time, the China-Japan Investment Promotion Committee was established as a Chinese counterpart. At present, the honorable Chen Deming, the host of this forum, serves as chairman.
During the 18 years since its establishment, our organization has provided support and information for Japanese firms intending to invest in China, and has helped companies doing business in China deal with problems they encountered. At present, the number of member companies has exceeded 370, and the total number of cases in which the Organization has given advice has risen to more than 20,000.
As you know, China’s foreign investment policy has come to a turning point, and preferential treatment for foreign capital has been in principle abolished with the exception of certain sectors including high-technology. Moreover, a new corporate income tax law and labor contract law were enacted in 2008, to create equal treatment for national and foreign capital. On the other hand, with regard to processing trade, which has contributed significantly to China’s economic development, the number of items whose trade is banned increased considerably, and the refund rate for the added-value tax has been lowered or abolished. In other words, the circumstances surrounding foreign companies have changed significantly. This change has been so rapid that we have seen an increase in recent years of withdrawals or restructuring by foreign companies that cannot cope with it. The number of companies asking for our organization’s advice has also increased. In particular, problems with the land system are growing. For instance, companies that were operating steadily have found themselves subjected to sudden relocation due to city planning or environmental measures, but compensation negotiations have not been carried out smoothly. I believe that companies doing business in China must have decided to launch operations there because they received a welcome from the local community. Though we are aware that land expropriation due to changes in the situation is unavoidable in China, which continues to make a rapid progress, I would like to ask you, as central and local government leaders, to maintain good relations with Japanese companies doing business in China, by ensuring alternative sites for relocation and providing compensation for the suspension of operation.
According to Chinese statistics, Japan’s investment there is decreasing year by year. According to Japan’s statistics, however, the amount of investment, including reinvestment by companies operating in China, has not decreased, but has remained relatively unchanged. However, new entries by large corporations seem to be drawing to an end, especially in the manufacturing sector. I think there will be few projects in the future involving tens or hundreds of billions of yen. On the other hand, however, investment in the financial and service sectors is expected to increase further, so we hope you will strive to open up to foreign investment in those sectors. In my view, there are four key elements that we should focus on for further promoting new investment in China. They are “energy-saving and green technology”, “smaller companies”, “the development of Central, Western and Northeast China”, and “special preferential treatment”.
“Energy conservation and environmental protection”, which was one of the agenda items of the Hokkaido Toyako Summit held in July, is a common problem faced by the entire world. China, which has achieved rapid economic development, has adopted energy conservation and environmental protection as priority subjects in her policy, and has taken a series of specific measures one after another, including the replacement of aging plant facilities and active introduction of emission controls. In addition, the “Japan-China Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Forum” has been held annually since 2006, alternately in Japan and China. Cooperation and partnership in this area is taking shape between our two countries. Japan, where environmental pollution became a major social problem during the period of high economic growth, has accumulated a broad range of environmental technologies and know-how. There are growing calls for the implementation of environmental measures all over the world. One of the roles Japan can play in this regard is to support environmental technology. We would like to actively help companies that have developed energy-saving and environmental technology to expand their business into China.
There are approximately 4.21 million companies in Japan. Of them, only 12,000 or so are large enterprises. What that means is that 4.19 million companies, making up 99.7% of the total, are small or medium-sized. Most of the large corporations have already operated in China, while many smaller companies, especially those with original technology, are still looking for opportunities to launch operations there. I believe it will certainly serve China’s national interest to actively attract smaller Japanese companies with advanced technology in the energy-saving and environmental protection areas. Such smaller companies, however, lack the information necessary for doing business in China or the human resources |
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