ATPF Working-Level Meeting in Hamamatsu

May 2015

Hamamatsu, the venue of this meeting, is a leading industrial city in Japan. Since 2011, JETRO has organized the ATPF Working-Level Meeting in local cities around Japan to help form connections between these areas and the rest of Asia. This year, JETRO introduced attractive local industries in Hamamatsu to the participants through both events: the Capacity Building Initiative Program and the Working-Level Meeting.

The Capacity Building Initiative Program offered an opportunity for the participants to gain insight about RBM and industrial clusters, which are produced by industry-academia-government collaboration, through lectures and visits to local public organizations and private companies which have utilized the Regional Industry Tie-up (RIT) Program provided by JETRO.

During the Working-Level Meeting, a networking event was convened on Day 1 inviting senior officials from local governments, including Hamamatsu Mayor Yasutomo Suzuki, business people of local companies and students coming to this city from other countries. A lively exchange of views was made between the ATPF members and these guests. At the beginning, a ceremonial breaking of a sake barrel was held with “Hananomai”, a well-known brand of Japanese alcohol from Hamamatsu. Traditional local cuisine cooked from agricultural and livestock ingredients of the city were also served. Official mascots of Hamamatsu City, “Ieyasu-kun - the Daimyo of Success,” and Kikugawa City, “Kikunon,” also joined the event. These special guests brought a lot of excitement to the venue and gave participants a chance to appreciate Japan’s unique mascot culture.

In Asia, where cross-border business is expanding, the relationship between trade and investment has grown even closer. In response to this trend, the Working-Level Meeting officially included a session for investment for the first time. In this investment session, discussions were made regarding the activities by member organizations to attract inward direct investment, current status of the Information Sharing Scheme on Investment Deals and enrollment of investment promotion organizations into the ATPF. Views were also exchanged regarding the Supplier Matching Support Scheme to support global procurement by companies. This scheme aims at resolving issues such as lack of information about procurement and difficulty in finding customers for products. The participants delivered their specific opinions about how to use these schemes.

To introduce local industries in Hamamatsu to the ATPF members, an industrial tour around the city was organized following the meeting. At the Suzuki Plaza, they learned about the development path of one of Japan’s representative automobile manufacturers and the underlying Japanese monozukuri culture. At a factory of Shunkado, a confectionary in Hamamatsu famous for its “Unagi (eel) Pie”, an occasion was set up for the members to think about regional revitalization through manufacturing and distributing food products which embody the particular characteristics of each area. With positive comments from the participants including “I had an invaluable experience through learning about the manufacturing process of vehicles,” and “It was fascinating to discover the distinctive food in the area”, this event offered an excellent opportunity for participants to appreciate the allures of Hamamatsu.