The Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, a network of organizations comprising 1.3 million Japanese businesses, met with GCEL in Tokyo, on October 2 2015, to kick off the Japan Shipment and Trade Efficiency Assessement (SEA) to identify the digital tools needed to boost Japanese exports worldwide.
Japan is the world’s third largest economy, yet its economic growth has been nominal and is forecasted to be below 1% during the next several years. Faced with an aging population and sluggish demand, Japan seeks to improve its trade efficiency, connect better with foreign markets, and grow trade with the middle and low-income countries.
Trade costs in the middle and low-income countries are nearly two to three times higher than those in the high-income countries. The use of new digital tools by middle and low-income countries to increase their trade efficiency and transparency as well as reduce trade costs will de-risk doing business with high income countries. Such digital tools will contribute to triggering more investment and will ease access to finance for the middle and low-income countries, thereby increasing their purchasing power, resulting in the ability for high income countries to increase their exports of high value products and services.
It is projected that by deploying new digital tools, Japan will decrease trade costs by USD 43.81 billion and increase trade by USD 32.31 billion.