JTTRI International Seminar on"Railway and Area Development in Manila"
Chairman Shukuri’s speech
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I am Masafumi Shukuri, the Chairmanof the Japan Transport and Tourism Research Institute (JTTRI).
We are truly grateful that so many of you, both Filipinos and Japanese people
living in the Philippines, were able to attend this international seminar "Railwayand Area Development" today.
First of all, we would like to thank to His Excellency Mr. Arthur P. Tugade,
Secretary of the Republic of the Philippines Department of Transportation, Mr.
Junn B. Magno, General Manager of the Philippine National Railways, Mr. Koji
Haneda, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to thePhilippines, and Mr. Yasaburo Hikasa, Assistant Vice-Minister, Minister'sSecretariat, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan for
their attendance.
Further, we are also very grateful for the considerable support and cooperation
provided by the Republic of the Philippines Department of Transportation, thePhilippine National Railways, the Philippine Railways Institute, the Embassy ofJapan in the Philippines, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport andTourism of Japan, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the Japan
Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the Philippines, and others in holding thisseminar today.
The Philippines is one of the major ASEAN countries, and its economy iscontinuing to grow robustly. Its history of exchanges with Japan extend back to
the 16th century. The personal and economic ties between our two countries are
now very deep.
In 2018, the number of people who traveled from the Philippines to Japan was
half a million and the number of people who traveled from Japan to thePhilippines was 630 thousand so that the number was 1.13 million in total. In thisway, in recent years, the interaction between people of these two countries has
become more and more intensive.

On the other hand, in the transportation fields in the Philippines, recently inrecent years, the New Bohol Airport went into service the year before last.
Various important railways projects, such as construction of the Metro Manila
Subway which will be the first subway in the Philippines, the North-South
Commuter Railway, the LRT Line 1 and 2 extensions, MRT 3 rehabilitation, as
well as the preparation of the Philippine Railways Institute for the purpose of
personnel education and training are under way. In these projects, by the Minister
Tugade’s strong initiative, we can see the results of much close and constructive
cooperation and collaboration between these two countries.
Based on the fruitful collaborative relationship between our two countries,
today’s seminar is being held with the theme "Railway and Area Development",
which is a very important policy issue. As you know, Transit Oriented
Development or T.O.D. is an extremely important theme to pursue in increasing
the social and economic benefits of the development of railways, and to make itpossible to create the value capture for railway projects.
In the first half of this seminar, Professor Shigeru Morichi, Director of thePolicy Research Center at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies,
formerly President for Research at our institute, and currently the Advisor for
Research at our institute, will give the keynote speech, and subsequently, Mr.
Muto, who is a senior research fellow at our institute, will report the results of ourinstitute’s "Study Group on Railway and Area Development" chaired byProfessor Dr. Morichi.
During the panel discussion in the latter part of this seminar, Mr. Timothy John
R. Batan, Undersecretary for Railways at the Republic of the Philippines
Department of Transportation, Dr. Primitivo C. Cal, Professor at the University of
the Philippines, and Professor Dr. Morichi will appear as panelists, and Dr.
Naohiko Hibino, Associate Professor at the National Graduate Institute for Policy
Studies, will act as a moderator to discuss challenges and future prospects in thedevelopment of railways and their area development along the railway lines in thePhilippines.

We, as the organizers, strongly hope that today's seminar will be useful for theparticipants and help achieve harmony between the expansion of railways anddevelopment of their area development along the railway lines in the Philippines
in the future.
Finally, to end my opening remarks, I would like to add that the activities of theJapan Transport and Tourism Research Institute are performed with the special
support of the Nippon Foundation.
Thank you very much.