Japan pledges over 500 bil. yen in aid to Mekong states over 3 yrs+

TOKYO, Nov. 6 Kyodo -
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said Friday that Japan will provide over 500
billion yen in official development assistance to five Mekong countries in
Southeast Asia over the next three years.

Hatoyama made the commitment at the first summit meeting involving the leaders
of Japan and the five Mekong-region countries -- Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar,
Thailand and Vietnam -- that began in Tokyo the same day, a Japanese official
said.
The two-day meeting through Saturday commenced against the backdrop of Japan's
continuing aid efforts in the Mekong River region amid China's growing presence
there.
During the day's meeting, Hatoyama pledged to boost Japan's support for the
Mekong countries to help the region's stability and development.
''The new government of Japan intends to proactively contribute more than ever
to stability and development in the Mekong region through our strengthened
assistance,'' Hatoyama said in his opening remarks. ''Japan will steadily play
its role as a bridge for common prosperity in the future.''
Stability and development, he said, would help to narrow disparities within the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations, to which the Mekong countries belong,
and promote the regional bloc's integration.
''In that sense,'' the Japanese prime minister said, the Mekong countries form
''an important region that holds the key to realizing my vision of an East
Asian community.''
The leaders of the Mekong countries thanked Japan for its commitment to the
region's development, saying that greater cooperation between the countries
would contribute to the successful establishment of an ASEAN Economic
Community, which is planned to be set up by 2015.
''I highly appreciate Japan's important role as a leading development partner
in promoting development and contributing to the strengthening of peace and
stability in the region,'' Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said in his opening
remarks. ''I wish our dialogue in this two-day summit would be successful and
fruitful for our cooperation.''
The ODA money promised by Hatoyama will be used in areas such as development,
the environment, climate change and efforts to overcome infectious diseases and
other vulnerabilities, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yorihisa Matsuno said in
a briefing.
Roughly 80 percent of the aid will be disbursed in the form of yen-denominated
loans, he said, adding that the sum will not differ much from what Japan has
previously provided.
Japan provided the five countries ODA totaling 196.2 billion yen in 2007 and
182.2 billion yen in 2008.
The participants of the summit meeting are scheduled to issue a joint
declaration covering a range of topics on Saturday.
On the environment and climate change, Japan is expected to expand its range of
assistance to the Mekong-region countries in the form of finance and techniques
in line with the Hatoyama Initiative -- under which Japan will financially help
developing countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Japan will also step up efforts to help build basic infrastructure in the
region, such as transport networks linking production bases and industrial
areas scattered around the region.
Such infrastructure includes ''software,'' such as customs clearance, skill
enhancement and legislation, which would make use of the roads and bridges
built for economic activities, a Japanese Foreign Ministry official said.
Assistance will also be extended for efforts to harmonize cross-regional
economic rules and systems that would improve logistics and enhance the entire
region economically.
All the Mekong-region countries apart from Thailand were late in joining ASEAN
and remain relatively poor, with their gross domestic product per capita
averaging less than $1,000.
Hatoyama will meet bilaterally with the Cambodian prime minister, Laotian Prime
Minister Bouasone Bouphavanh, Myanmar Prime Minister Gen. Thein Sein, Thai
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung
on Saturday.
==Kyodo