The Japanese foreign minister announced a multibillion-dollar initiative yesterday to promote development in Southeast Asia’s Mekong region, which encompasses parts of Vietnam, Laos and Thailand through which the river flows.
In a speech at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Fumio Kishida affirmed the importance of Southeast Asia’s economic prosperity to Japan.
He pledged ￥750 billion (US$7 billion) in funding during the next three years to support development and growth in the region.
The initiative is to help promote “connectivity” within Southeast Asian nations and Japan, through funding in infrastructure and development of human resources.
Thailand has become a key manufacturing and export hub for Japanese manufacturers such as automakers Toyota Motor Corp and Honda Motor Co.
“Invigorating the flow of goods and people by connecting the region through roads, bridges and railways is indispensable for promoting economic development,” Kishida said, adding that Japan’s cooperation would go beyond just building infrastructure.
Over the next three years, “we will make use of funds amounting to ￥750 billion toward cooperation with the Mekong region,” Kishida added.
Specific details have not been announced, but he said Japan would like to work together with the Mekong nations to create a framework to support the various efforts, including regional issues and theme-oriented support, in a detailed manner.
“I am expecting the day when, as a result of these efforts, I can depart from Bangkok eastward in the morning, and arrive in Ho Chi Minh City at night and enjoy pho for dinner,” he said.
Kishida also renewed his call for the establishment of a code of conduct in the South China Sea, where Taiwan China, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia the Philippines have competing territorial claims, and that prosperity can only achieved if there is peace and stability in the region.
“In this region, there are issues of terrorism, extremism, and ensuring maritime safety and security,” Kishida said.
“There are multitudes of issues now facing our ASEAN partners,” he said. “We need to face these issues together and maintain stability in this region. What is necessary is respect for diversity and what is fundamental for that is the rule of law.”
Referring to Thailand’s political situation and its military government, Kishida said he hoped that the people of Thailand would overcome the difficult challenges and “play a more active role in the region and international community.”
The visit to Thailand is part of a regional tour that includes stops in China, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam.
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) forecast that its wafer shipments this quarter would grow up to 7 percent sequentially and the factory utilization rate would rise to 75 percent, indicating that customers did not alter their ordering behavior due to the US President Donald Trump’s capricious US tariff policies. However, the uncertainty about US tariffs has weighed on the chipmaker’s business visibility for the second half of this year, UMC chief financial officer Liu Chi-tung (劉啟東) said at an online earnings conference yesterday. “Although the escalating trade tensions and global tariff policies have increased uncertainty in the semiconductor industry, we have not
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said it plans to ship its new 1 megawatt charging systems for electric trucks and buses in the first half of next year at the earliest. The new charging piles, which deliver up to 1 megawatt of charging power, are designed for heavy-duty electric vehicles, and support a maximum current of 1,500 amperes and output of 1,250 volts, Delta said in a news release. “If everything goes smoothly, we could begin shipping those new charging systems as early as in the first half of next year,” a company official said. The new
SK Hynix Inc warned of increased volatility in the second half of this year despite resilient demand for artificial intelligence (AI) memory chips from big tech providers, reflecting the uncertainty surrounding US tariffs. The company reported a better-than-projected 158 percent jump in March-quarter operating income, propelled in part by stockpiling ahead of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs. SK Hynix stuck with a forecast for a doubling in demand for the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) essential to Nvidia Corp’s AI accelerators, which in turn drive giant data centers built by the likes of Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com Inc. That SK Hynix is maintaining its
RSS