寄稿

EU-JAPANBusiness Collaborationin Third Markets
Dr. Philippe de Taxis du PoëtGeneral Manager (EU-side, DG GROW), EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperation
Minister Counsellor, Delegation of the European Union to JapanThe EU and Japan have built strong ties between
them with the Economic Partnership Agreement(EPA) and the Strategic Partnership Agreement(SPA). With the EU-Japan Partnership on
sustainable Connectivity and quality infrastructure
signed by PM Abe and President Juncker inBrussels on 27 September 2019, they are also
strengthening what the EU and Japan can dotogether on the global scene to ensure synergiesand complementarity between their respective
cooperation with partner third countries.
Against this connectivity background, cooperation
between European and Japanese companies inthird markets is a growing and promising businesstrend. For example, a study1 conducted by theGerman Chamber of Commerce and Industry inJapan in 2020 reveals that 63% of German
companies in Japan are involved in businessactivities with Japanese partners outside Japan,
especially in the ASEAN region. In addition, 47%of German companies in Japan are generating
revenues with Japanese customers outside Japan atleast to the same extent as in Japan, and dependingon the industry, this revenue ratio is 1 to 4.
Such a business cooperation in third markets allows
European and Japanese companies to better
compete as they may possess complementarystrengths in technologies, market intelligence,
financing, existing infrastructures and facilities –notwithstanding historical, cultural ties and local
know-how between several EU member states, orJapan may have in Africa, Southeast Asia, andLatin America.

Beside the industrial and policy dimensions, thefinancial one is equally important. The
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed
over the last years between European and Japanesefinancial institutions, e.g. European Investment
Bank (EIB), Japan International Cooperation
Agency (JICA), Japan Bank for International
cooperation (JBIC) and Nippon Export andInvestment Insurance (NEXI) will be instrumental
for the co-financing of joint EU-Japan industrial
projects in third markets. The EU-Japan Business
Round Table2 recently called for strengthened EUJapan cooperation to assist third countries byleveraging these financial MoUs.
Positive impacts of EU-Japan business cooperationin third markets have been well documented in theconference3 that the EU-Japan Centre for Industrial
Cooperation organised at the Delegation of the EU
to Japan in Tokyo on 3 December 2019 and notably
the report4 of April 2020 by Masami Marbo
analysing EU-Japan business collaboration in thirdmarket via a number of concrete examples. They
have provided further understanding of this strategic
business trend, notably its magnitude, drivers andrationale, geographical focus, specific industrial
sectors or size of business partners, and type ofbusiness collaboration. EU-Japan businesscooperation in third markets also highlight thatmaximising the benefits of such business partnership,
be it between large companies or SMEs, may
represent an opportunity of equal or perhaps evenmore promising importance than the bilateralbusiness cooperation between Europe and Japan.
Connectivity is a megatrend of the 21st century.
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Rapidly growing interdependence between
countries provides unprecedented opportunities forthe well-being, safety and resilience of countries
and societies. Even more so given the unparalleleddownturns of our economies with disruptions toemployment, trade and global value chains due tothe ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
EU-Japan business cooperation in third markets,
notably in Southeast Asia and in Africa should be
pivotal for the operationalisation of the EU-Japan
connectivity partnership. It is a win-win strategic
business cooperation beneficial to the third countries
concerned, Japan and the EU. The EU-Japan Centre
for Industrial Cooperation5 – a joint venture
established in 1987 by the European Commission(DG GROW) and the Japanese Government (METI)
for promoting industrial, trade and investment
cooperation between the EU and Japan – willcontribute to promote and facilitate this businesstrend via existing and new measures focusing onthe three following pillars.
• The first is the promotion of the benefits of thesecooperation to relevant EU, Japan and third
countries’ institutional and corporate stakeholders
as well as sharing success stories. Opportunities
that EU-Japan business cooperation in third
countries represent for companies, for third
countries as clients, as well as on the broadpolitical spectrum are not enough visible. Twohighlights should be made. The first is thatprivileged stakeholders for any European
company looking for Japanese partners foroverseas projects are the Japanese general
trading companies: they are intermediaries,
managing and taking charge of orders fromcontractors; but also financing coordinators, aswell as considerable investors. The second is thatthe recent shift of Japanese companies to astrategy of open innovation, in particular in theindustries of telecommunications, automotive,electronics and railway, is also an important
window of opportunity for European companies.

82020.9• The second pillar is the support of the matchmakingof businesses. As for trade promotion
organisations, three priorities to enhance further
EU-Japan business cooperation in third countries
should be highlighted. The first is the promotion– in particular vis-à-vis the SMEs – of the benefits
and opportunities of such cooperation to relevant
EU, Japan and third countries’ institutional andcorporate stakeholders. The second is the supportof the matchmaking of businesses, with different
strategies proposed according to the situations inwhich companies are and the sectors concerned,
e.g. agri-food, digital economy, circular economy,
space industry. Lastly, a focus should be made on
reinforcing institutional cooperation to aligninterests and third-country business strategies, aswell as and coordinate mobilised resources andinitiatives.
• The last focus should bear on reinforcing
institutional cooperation towards ensuring clear
visibility on the human and financial resources
mobilized, aligning institutional interests andthird-country business strategies, and coordinatingon the support of EU-Japan business in third
countries as mentioned in the two pillars abovementioned. A concrete set of actions would include
identifying interested and relevant institutional
stakeholders and contact points.
As for businesses, general recommendations on any
business cooperation prevail: businesses must havea strong will to cooperate, based on a good mutual
understanding of common interests, and intercomplementariness in all its dimensions, as well as
being prepared to engage in a lengthy process todefine clearly the details of such cooperation. As for
projects in third countries more specifically, twomain sets of best practices shared by companies areto sustain attention in the local environment anddemand, as well as on being vigilant concerning
ethics and compliance standards.
Last but not least, there is no doubt that it may beparticularly challenging for SMEs to address issues

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relating to differences in language, culture andmanagement. This SME dimension is pivotal given
the growing importance of SMEs in exporting interms of standard metrics (the number of exporting
SMEs, their share in total export) but also in respect
to several key performance indicators such asexport competitiveness, digital intensity of theirexports, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and jobs
supported. For example on the EU side in 2017
according to a recent report6, the number of EU
exporting SMEs has grown steadily over time.
More than 700,000 EU27 enterprises sold goods
outside of the EU. Out of all these enterprises,around 615,000 were SMEs. They exported goods
worth €476 billion, which represented 28% of thetotal value of extra-EU exports. In many economicsectors, EU SMEs account for more than 50% of
the total value of EU exports. They are also
competitive in sectors characterized by mediumhigh digital intensity, and are contributing less tothe total EU export-related GHG emissions thannon-SME exporters. It is therefore crucial topromote the participation of EU and JapaneseSMEs in building EU-Japan business cooperationin third markets. I would like therefore to invite
Japanese companies to express their interest to theEU-Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperation insupporting the forthcoming business missions inthird markets either as promotion multipliers or as
potential partners for EU SMEs.

1. https://japan.ahk.de/fileadmin/AHK_Japan/Dokumente/
German_Business_in_Japan_2020_EN.pdf
2. https://www.eu-japan-brt.eu/system/files/pastmeetings/2020/
BRTcoronavirus_final_EN_20200525.pdf
3. https://www.eu-japan.eu/events/eu-japan-businesscollaborations-third-markets
4. https://www.eu-japan.eu/sites/default/files/publications/docs/report_masami_marbot_april_2020_0.pdf
5. https://www.eu-japan.eu/
6. https://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2020/june/
tradoc_158778.pdf

Finally, EU-Japan business cooperation in thirdmarkets has high political stakes as it advances
common values and principles of freedom,democracy, and open markets. Even further, thecooperation of European and Japanese companies inthird countries also defends and promotes globallyhigh social, environmental and technologicalstandards. It may become the new horizon for thenext decade with a pertinent mix of industrial,
economic as well as geopolitical dimension.

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