Director General of the Japan External Trade Organization,
Mr. President of the European Business Community in Japan,
Mr. Shimada,
Director General of the Chamber of Commerce,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Distinguished Guests,
It is a great honor and pleasure to be given this morning the opportunity to open this conference on the Japanese Economy and its opportunities for Luxembourg companies.
Be assured, my introductory remarks will be very brief and I would like to leave the floor to the speakers who have come here today to provide you with detailed information about Japan.
This conference is very timely, as it provides an excellent opportunity to follow-up on the visit of the Luxembourg Delegation to Japan early September, a visit in which many companies present here today took part.
Indeed, the visit to Japan by H.R.H. the Grand Duke of Luxembourg was a real success and provided an excellent framework to many Luxembourg companies to initiate or develop fruitful links with Japanese industries.
I would like to remind you that at the occasion of the "Luxembourg Promotion Day", four seminars were organized in Tokyo in order to strengthen the economic and trade relations between Luxembourg and Japan.
The Investment and trade seminar was focused on the automotive component sector, which is a key industry in Luxembourg and one of the priorities of the economic development policy of the Government. Luxembourg has many assets to offer and many companies are already active in that field. We hope that many Japanese companies will take advantage from this favorable environment.
But also Luxembourg component suppliers are very keen to develop partnerships with Japanese companies. The presence of several Luxembourg automotive component suppliers at the mission last September is the ample proof of the high interest of Luxembourg companies in the Japanese market.
The event in Japan was only the most recent of a number of missions organized since the opening of our embassy in 1989, and I am convinced that after the presentations today, new opportunities for a future mission arise.
The recent mission to Japan headed by H.R.H. Grand Duke Henri has generated concrete results. Indeed, less than 2 weeks ago, we were pleased to announce that TDK corporation has decided to implement a new investment project in Luxembourg for the production of recordable DVDs. This decision illustrates very clearly the confidence of Japanese investors in a Luxembourg location and the strengthening of the ties between the Japanese and Luxembourg economies.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Distinguished Guests,
You will hear more on the Japanese economy during this mornings' seminar by more qualified people than me. Let me only stress the deep changes that the Japanese economy has undergone since the beginning of the financial crisis in the middle of the 90's and that today the structural reforms under the Koizumi Administration could bring new opportunities for Japanese and Luxembourg companies alike.
In that respect, I am particularly delighted to welcome Mr. TANAKA, Director General at JETRO in Brussels; Mr. COLASSE, President of the European Business Community in Japan and Mr. SHIMADA, Special Advisor to the Prime Minister and Professor at Keio University.
We are all looking forward to your presentations on the Japanese economy and above all on the prospects of its future development.
I do hope that the conference today will allow us to forge new valuable links and enhance bilateral trade and investment relations between our two countries.
Thank you for your attention.