Pak-Japan economic relations: IDCJ approaches Pakistan for carrying out survey

International Development Center of Japan Inc (IDCJ) has approached Pakistan for carrying out a survey on strengthening economic relations between Pakistan and Japan and proposing measures to encourage Japanese investment in the country.
Sources told Business Recorder here on Monday that the survey on strengthening economic relations between Pakistan and Japan would be carried out by Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) Japan (work period July 2018-february 2019), through International Development Center of Japan Inc (IDCJ).
According to the IDCJ, in order to make the growth of Japanese economy sustainable, it is indispensable to capture the demand of growing overseas markets, especially, given its remarkable growth, success in the Asian market holds importance for success in the global market.
In 2017, the population of Pakistan exceeded 200 million, of which people aged under 30 years accounted for 60%. In addition, the GDP growth rate has stabilized at around 5%. These show that the country's domestic market is active and expanding, and the economy is expected to grow further in future.
On the other hand, there still remains a room for development in economic relations with Japan. Due to the issues regarding infrastructure development status, security, electric power supply, and consistency of policy, there has not been any significant increase in the number of enterprises entering in Pakistan, and bilateral trade is limited, the IDCJ said.
However, according to the JETRO survey on Japanese companies in 2017, the profit surplus ratio of Japanese companies operating in Pakistan was higher than other countries in South Asia such as India and Bangladesh, and the business motivation for these businesses is ranked the 1st in Asia. For Japanese companies, it is considered as a promising market, the IDCJ said.
Pakistan also seeks further investment from Japan and strengthening of the trade relations with Japan. Hence strengthening economic relations between Pakistan and Japan is strongly required.
The IDCJ said that the purpose of this survey is to present material for discussion with the government of Pakistan to strengthen bilateral economic relations between two countries based on the current situation, according to the following process. The survey would collect and analyze basic information on Pakistan's economy and bilateral economic relation. The survey would extract issues to strengthen trade relations with Japan. The survey would extract issues to improve investment environment for Japanese companies. The survey would examine and devise measures for strengthening bilateral economic relations with Japan and it would present materials for discussion with the government of Pakistan.
In order to achieve the purpose of this work, the IDCJ would carry out the five components concerning survey analysis/information arrangement, and countermeasure study/ presentation.
Component 1: Survey and Analysis on Business Environment of Pakistan: It included analysis of attractiveness and competitive advantage, extraction of promising industries for investment, analysis of investment decisive factors and impediment factors, analysis of trade opportunities and identification of recognition gap on business environment and factor analysis.
Component 2: Organize information from Government of Pakistan: Overviews of Pakistan economy, business environment and issues, requests and proposals of Pakistan for bilateral economic relations.
Component 3: Examine Strengthening Bilateral Relations and Draft Proposal: It included improvement of investment environment, strengthening of trade relations issues for promotion g bilateral trade possibility of free trade agreements (FTAs).
Component 4: Support for Pakistan-Japan Public and private Business dialogue: It included preparation of presentation materials, participation in the dialogue and explanation and reflection of comments on review.
Component 5: Preparation and submission of interim and final report.
The implementation plan and schedule of the said survey revealed that based on the project objective and contents and implementation method, implement project in consultation with Southwest Asia Office, Asia and Pacific Division, Trade Policy Bureau, METI (METI). It would compile the survey results as a final report and submit it to METI before the deadline and report the progress of survey to METI whenever necessary.
The major activities of the IDCJ included policy making and planning studies, evaluation studies, training, information and statistics, promotion of social responsibilities activities and others.
The IDCJ has conducted surveys and carried out technical cooperation projects for JICA and other public agencies in the field of socio-economic development, regional/urban development, and evaluation in various regions such as Asia, Africa and South America. In particular, the IDCJ has broad research experience in surveys on industrial development/promotion. Also, the IDCJ has provided consulting services to Japanese companies interested in investing overseas.
In Pakistan, the IDCJ has implemented JICA projects and surveys mainly in the field of economic/industrial and human development. Therefore, IDCJ has accumulated experience and has deep understanding on trade investment and automotive industry whereas IDCJ has built human network in each field. Furthermore, IDCJ has experienced specialists who are familiar with economic trends in Pakistan.