From: tran@neep.engr.wisc.edu
Subject: [ECO] Vietnam: Japan's target
Originator: daemon@media-lab.media.mit.edu
Reply-To: tran@neep.engr.wisc.edu
Organization: SCV Relay
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 15:20:46 GMT

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

To^i ddo.c ba`i na`y ca'ch dda^y va`i tha'ng, tru+o+'c khi to^i va`o
SCV.  Ne^'u ba`i na`y dda~ ddu+o+.c ddu+a le^n net ro^`i thi` xin ca'c
netters coi nhu+ la` dde^? nha('c nho+? 1 va^'n dde^` chu'ng ta ca^`n
pha?i dde^? ta^m lo la('ng.

Post (without permission) :

SECRETS OF JAPAN'S FOREIGN AID
Building an economic empire all over Asia

By Pete Carey
and Lewis M. Simons
Knight-Ridder Newspapers

As recession-weary Americans debate how many US tax dollars should go to help
other countries, few may realize that Japan partly fuels its surging economic
power with a foreign-aid program that ranks among the world's largest.
   But unlike the overwhelmingly military or humanitarian aid programs of the
US, Japan has carefully and quietly built a system that is giving its economic
supremacy in Asia, benefiting its politicians and steering huge projects to
Japanese trading companies.
   The result is growing control of Asian markets at the expense of US business
and, in some cases, enormous Japanese influence over the economies of the
region.
   "Most (US) aid is for US military security purposes," said John Sewel of the
Overseas Development Council in Washington.  "The Japanese think this is
silly#... They think we pour a go+d part of our money down a rat hole on security
needs."
   Instead, Japan concentrates its direct aid - expected to be $13 billion in
1993 - to help build roads, bridges, dams, power plants and industrial parks.
In Asia, which gets about 64 percent of Japanese foreign aid, money has poured
into Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, all countries with key
resources or with pools of cheap, skilled labor and large potential markets for
Japanese products.
   Such projects are credited with fostering astonishing growth in these
developing countries by smoothing the way for Japanese commercial investment
and trade, thus providing jobs, capital and technical expertise#.

   A San Jose Mercury News investigation, however, also shows that:

   > Despite claims that policies have changed, Japan's program remains a
closed-loop system designed TO SIPHON BACK MOST ECONOMIC BENEFITS OF OVERSEAS
PROJECTS.
   "The Japanese have HELPED THEMSELVES MOST OF ALL and a certain select group
of Thais - INVESTORS AND TOP OFFICIALS WHO ARE CLOSE TO THE JAPANESE ," Amarin
Khoman, president of Thai Star Shipping Co. in Bangkok, said about Thailand's
experience#.  "Ordinary Thais haven't benefited."
   A Thai economist said that "IF YOU CALCULATE $100 COMING INTO THAILAND,
ABOUT 95 ARE GOING BACK TO JAPAN, EVENTUALLY#."

   > Some of Japan's aid projects have caused significant environmental damage,
including air and water pollution and deforestation.
   "Japan destroys the environment of other countries," said an opposition
member of Japan's Parliament, "and no matter how rich a lifestyle Japan
achieves, certainly within Asia, Japan will not be thought of as a great
nation."

   > Various US foreign-aid projects have been tainted by scandal over the
years, but Japan's foreign-aid program IS MARKED BY SYSTEMATIC CORRUPTION AND
BRIBERY OF FOREIGN OFFICIALS.
   Aid projects are supposed to be funded after requests by recipient
governments, but many in fact are QUIETLY DRUMMED UP AND GUIDED BY JAPANESE
CONSULTING FIRMS AND TRADING COMPANIES.
   The system is "AN UNHOLY TRINITY OF POLITICIANS, BUREAUCRATS AND PRIVATE
COMPANIES," said Professor Yoshinori Murai of Tokyo's Sophia University, an
expert on foreign aid to Indonesia#.

   > The program operates behind closed doors, with no laws governing it.
   "The system is incredibly well-hidden, in secure computers, something like 
the Pentagon's 'black budget,'" said Yuji Suzuki, a professor of international
politics at Hosei University in Tokyo#.  "The security#... may be compared with
US military intelligence (or) like the CIA and FBI rolled into one#."

   Japan says its aid program is becoming less commercial and more oriented 
toward human needs... But many Asian businessmen are skeptical.
   "As a trader, my view is that although they (Japanese officials) call it 
aid, it's not aid at all; it's investment," said Khoman of Thailand.
   In fact, in 1987, Japan began planning to make foreign aid the underpinning
of a full-scale strategy to integrate the Asian economy into that of Japan.
   "The reason for Japan putting so much (foreign aid) into infrastructure is,
admittedly, to support their own manufacturing-expansion plans," said Dr. Nimit
Nontapunthawat, senior vice president and chief economist of the Bangkok Bank.
"This is part of their broad planning for all Southeast Asia#."
   ...Critics say it exploits the resources of other Asian nations.
   During a recent meeting in Tokyo, a Bangladeshi environmentalist told the 
Japanese that they were "not spending money to help people#.  You are not 
spending money for health, for education...Try to speak to your own hearts as 
humans: How much do you need to eat? How much do you need to buy, to own?"
   In addition, much of the aid received by developing countries IS IN THE FORM
OF LOANS THAT MUST BE PAID BACK.  Although terms of these loans are often 
favorable, the payments can cause problems.  For example, Indonesia has 
struggled with massive debt repayments after the value of the yen doubled in
1985.

........ To^i bo? 2 ddoa.n "KEY DIFFERENCES" va` "PRIVATE CONTROL".... no'i ve^`
su+. kha'c bie^.t giu+~a foreign-aid cu?a My~ va` cu?a Nha^.t, cu`ng ca'ch ho^'i lo^. Marcos
va` ca'c vie^n chu+'c chi'nh phu? o+? Phi Lua^.t Ta^n.

INSIDE LOOK

   Perhaps the closest look an outsider has had at the inner workings of 
Japan's aid program was obtained in 1988 by a University of California-Berkeley
doctoral candidate in political science#.
   David Arase, now an assistant professor of government at Pomona College in
Claremont, Calif., spent that year researching at Japan's Overseas Economic 
Cooperation Fund (OECF), which, along with the Japan International Cooperation
Agency, handles most of Japan's foreign aid.
   Arase, a Japanese American, was given a desk in the OECF's research and
technical appraisal department and soon realized that a number of people who 
appeared to be OECF employees actually came from private industry#.
   Working full time on OECF offices were employees of Bank of Tokyo; Pacific
Consultants International, a major engineering consulting company; Mitsubishi
Bank; Japan Steel Corp.; and others.
   "The private-sector people tended be the sort of staff people who had 
certain technical expertise, accounting or financial skills, certain design or
business skills or sometimes no skills at all," Arase said.  "They just needed 
a body there#."
   "The effect of this is to create a privileged circle of insiders and to lock
out outsiders.  Not only does this result in cozy insider business practices,
but also a lack of democratic oversight."

NEW ASIAN PLAN

   Japan's New Asian Industrial Development Plan calls for using aid to prepare
infrastructure - industrial estates, ports, railways, airports and 
telecommunications - for export industries.  Aid for technical training of 
local populations follows.  Japanese experts ARE TO BE PLACED IN LOCAL 
GOVERNMENT AGENCIES TO WORK ON DEVELOPMENT PLANS AND TO RELAX LOCAL INVESTMENT
LAWS, Arase said.
   In Bangkok, they are there already, "sitting in the same building actually
advising some of the Thai officials," said Juanji Ajanant, a Thai economist and
former policy adviser to a former prime minister.
   Meanwhile, while Bangkok choking on growth, Ajanant said, Japanese aid and
investment is moving on to Malaysia and Indonesia#.  VIETNAM WILL BE ITS "No#. 1
TARGET" for investment next year, he said.

Chu'c Tro.ng Nga^n

PS.  Chi? mong ca'c nha` ca^`m quye^`n o+? VN kho^ng que^n kinh nghie^.m
nu+o+'c ta bi. Nha^.t chie^'m ddo'ng 1940-1945 va` ga^y ra na.n ddo'i 1945
khie^'n ho+n 1 trie^.u ngu+o+`i che^'t.  Chuye^n gia VN o+? ngoa.i quo^'c
dda^`u o'c kho^ng thua Nha^.t ba^'t cu+' tre^n la~nh vu+.c na`o, nhu+ng tie^'c
thay, chu+a co' co+ ho^.i du.ng vo~ vi` ca'i che^' ddo^. ngu xua^?n, la.c ha^.u,
lo^~i tho+`i va^~n co`n nga(n ca?n bu+o+'c tie^'n cu?a da^n to^.c.


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