The second day of the official visit to Japan by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia and President of the European Council, Mr Janez Janša, was devoted to intensifying economic cooperation. The Slovenian Prime Minister, accompanied by the Minister of the Economy, Mr Andrej Vizjak, and a sizeable delegation of Slovenian businessmen, had a meeting today with representatives of Nippon Keidanren (the Japan Business Federation) and with the management of the Sony Corporation. The Slovenian economic delegation of 26 representatives of Slovenian companies also took part in a business conference, at which they outlined to their Japanese partners the Slovenian automobile industry and opportunities for bilateral cooperation.
Prime Minister Janez Janša and Keidanren Vice-Chairman Keikichi Honda (Photo: Kristina Kosec/Bobo)
The Slovenian Prime Minister reported that the meeting with the Keidanren business federation, composed of leading representatives of the Japanese economy, had focused on economic cooperation between the two countries, on tourism – a direct charter service between Ljubljana and Tokyo will be established in August 2008 – and on energy issues.
Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia and President of the European Council, Janez Janša, with Keidanren representatives during their working lunch (Photo: Kristina Kosec/Bobo)
The Prime Minister stressed that, at the meeting with Keidanren representatives and at the business conference between the Slovenian and Japanese economic delegations, a number of genuine business links had been established that would help increase the presence of Slovenian companies on the Japanese market, which has a reputation for being the most closed of the developed markets. The PM added that today’s talks had opened up new opportunities for strengthening existing economic cooperation in the fields of logistics, energy, the automobile industry i.e. the production of major automotive components, and tourism.
(Photo: Kristina Kosec/Bobo)
Today the Prime Minister also visited the head office of the Sony Corporation and had a meeting with its management. He was then given a tour of the exhibition room where the latest achievements of Sony’s state-of-the-art technology were on display.
(Photo: Kristina Kosec/Bobo)
Speaking to journalists, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia and current President of the European Council also outlined his expectations for tomorrow’s EU-Japan Summit, at which talks will focus on joint efforts to tackle climate change and on preparations in the run-up to the G8 Summit to be held in July in Japan’s Hokkaido. Other major issues to be discussed will be economic cooperation between the EU-27 and Japan and the current situation in the world economy. “The situation on the US financial markets – above all, high oil and food prices – is a cause for concern in all the economies of the world, including those of Japan and the EU, since they jointly generate almost 40% of the world’s GDP,” said the PM and added that security challenges faced by both the European Union and Japan would also be discussed at the Summit.
(Photo: Kristina Kosec/Bobo)
In the evening, Prime Minister Janez Janša had a working meeting with European Commission President José Manuel Barroso. Their talks focused on the major issues to be raised at tomorrow’s EU-Japan Summit.
