TOKYO: Japan will continue to provide financial assistance and technical support to help Malaysia's socio-economic development.
Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Southeast Asia's deputy director (Indonesia and Malaysia) Kazue Minami said Japan's Official Development Assistance (ODA) to Malaysia dated back to 1956.
She said that since 1969 to 2014, Japan's ODA disbursements to Malaysia amounted to US$7.8 billion, with another US$2.5 billion in loans.
JICA has facilitated the training of 17,000 Malaysians in Japan and sent 1,500 volunteers to work with Malaysians.
"Japan's assistance concerned the development of economic infrastructure, power generation, improving manufacturing technologies, human resources development and urban and environmental improvement.
"This enabled the successful implementation of systematic development policies under the 11th Malaysia Plan and built a mutual trust between both countries," she said.
Minami said up to 2016, Japan's technical cooperation to Malaysia amounted to a total of 105.4 billon yen, while the loan accounted for 949.3 billion yen.
She detailed the breakdown for technical cooperation as 17.3 billion yen (or 16 per cent) for human resource development, 12.2 billion yen (11 per cent) for planning and administration, 9.9 billion yen (10 per cent) for mining and industry, 8.4 billion yen (8 per cent) for public works and social infrastructure.
Also, 5.8 billion yen (6 per cent) for transportation, 4.7 billion yen (4 per cent) for healthcare, 4.4 billion yen (4 per cent) for agriculture, forestry and fisheries, 2.4 billion yen (2 per cent) for business and tourism, 1.1 billion yen (1 per cent) for communications and broadcasting, 1 billion yen (1 per cent) for energy and 38 billion yen (36 per cent) for other sectors.
As for loans, Japan facilitated 437.8 billion yen (46 per cent) for energy, 120.3 billion yen
(13 per cent) for transportation, 194.2 billion yen (20 per cent) for public works and social infrastructure, 109.5 billion yen (12 per cent) for mining and industry, 57.7 billion yen (6 per cent) for human resource development, 13.4 billion yen (1 per cent) for agriculture, forestry and fisheries, 10.2 billion yen (1 per cent) for healthcare, 6.2 billion yen (1 per cent) for communications and broadcasting, and 0.45 billion for other sectors.
"Under the social and economic development for Malaysia, Japan's efforts has managed to decrease the former's poverty level from 49 per cent in 1970 to an astounding 0.6 per cent in 2014," Minami said.
She added that in the 1960s and 1970s, Malaysia's exports to Japan were mainly wood and tin, while it imported machines and metal products from Japan.
"Japanese manufacturers set up many subsidiaries in Malaysia, with the electric and electronics industries seeing tremendous growth.
"Japan exported industrial materials and parts for production in Malaysia, while Malaysia exported to Japan manufactured products from the factories here, apart from wood and mineral fuels," she said.
She added that in 1995 manufacturing products accounted for more than 80 per cent of its total exports, transforming Malaysia from an agriculture based country into an industrialised nation, exporting to the world.
Minami said by 2015, Japan's balance of direct investments in Malaysia was RM73.8 billion, making it the second largest investing country after Singapore.
Meanwhile, JICA's Southeast Asia's senior executive (Indonesia and Malaysia) Tanji Ishibashi said Malaysia's water resource development plan of 1978-82 saw work being undertaken in Kinabatangan (Sabah), Klang, Kelantan, Muda (Kedah) and the Pahang-Selangor raw water transfer project.
Also, he said the 1990-93 national road network development project involved Kuala Lumpur, Johor Baru, the Klang Valley and the Crocker Range Crossing in Sabah were part of Japan's Official Development Assistance (ODA).
"Malaysia's economy has been mainly dependent on agriculture, forestry and mining before industrialisation began in the 1970s.
"Emphasis, hence, switched to technolkgy, small-and-medium enterprise promotion, vocational training, trade and investment promotion, energy saving, occupational safety, pollution control, intellectual property rights and customs system," he said.
JICA's industrial technology support in metal processing, foundry, ceramics and artificial intelligence boosted foreign direct investments into Malaysia, and built an important basis for current economic policiess.
Ishibashi said that in the energy and electricity sector, Japan provided loans to built the Temenggor hydro-electric project, followed by for the Port Dickson power station rehabilitation project.
"The new electricity generation equipment resulted in a 55 per ce t efficiency and a 37.7 per cent decrease in greenhouse gas emission in 2009-11.
Under Malaysian Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad's first tenure in the 1980s, Japan assisted Malaysia's industrialisation by providing tertiary education in science and technology in local and Japanese universities, to churn highly qualified engineers.
"Dr Mahathir advocated the 'Look East Policy' to get Malaysians to learn work ethics, values and technologies.
"This resulted in Japan providing a 18.5 billion yen higher education loan from 1993 to 2015.
An additional 14 billion yen loan was facilitated from 1999 to 2004.
"Both financial assistances saw 2,300 Malaysians graduate with a bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees." he said.