PM Looking to Promote Trade Ties in Japan

Tokyo, 22 April

Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa met representatives of the Keidanren business association and visited Sony headquarters on the second day of his official visit to Japan. Jansa is accompanied by Slovenian Economy Minister Andrej Vizjak and a group of Slovenian businessmen, who attended a Slovenian-Japanese business conference.

The prime minister of Slovenia held on Tuesday a working lunch with Keikichi Honda of Nippon Keidanren (Japan Business Federation), the most important business association in Japan, uniting more than 1500 companies and organisations.
According to Jansa, the talks focused on ways to promote economic ties. "We established that there is interest in expanding business ties, especially in areas such as logistics, energy, production of auto parts and, of course, in tourism," he said.
He said Slovenia wanted to increase its presence on the relatively closed Japanese market. The tried and tested formula for achieving this includes establishing concrete contacts, having a good presentation and encouraging Japanese partners to visit Slovenia, Jansa added.
The talks with Keidanren representatives, which wields political influence, were held as part of preparations for Jansa's talks with his Japanese counterpart Yasuo Fukuda on Wednesday. These are expected to be dominated by business ties.
At Sony headquarters, Jansa met Ryoji Chubachi, president and electronics CEO of Sony, and was given a tour of one of world's leading electronics manufacturers. Sony Corporation was founded after WWII and now employs more than 160,000 people worldwide. Last year its sales surpassed USD 70bn.
The second day of Jansa's visit to Japan also saw a business conference in Tokyo. In his opening address, Slovenian Economy Minister Andrej Vizjak said that chances were good for Slovenian-Japanese business cooperation to grow.
Trade between the two states has been on the rise, reaching EUR 110m in 2007. Slovenia is registering a considerable deficit, but this is typical for trade between Japan and the EU as a whole.
"Our economies complement each other, and I am convinced that we can make a breakthrough in the Japanese market with high-quality goods," said Vizjak. There are also extensive possibilities for more Japanese investment in Slovenia, especially in sectors with high value added, he also stressed.
At the conference there was also a presentation of the Automotive Cluster of Slovenia, an association that unites more than 50 companies and institutes mostly manufacturing car parts. As Vizjak stressed, these companies are development-based and very successful in dealing with the challenges of globalisation.

PM Looking to Promote Trade Ties in Japan

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