Your Excellency, Ato Ahmed Shide, State Minister of Finance and Economic Development,
Excellencies,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good Morning.  Endemen Aderachehu.

It is a great pleasure for me to have this opportunity to say a few words at this special seminar on Japan’s economic development from the historical perspective.  I am pleased to see that this seminar is being held today in response to His Excellency Ato Ahmed’s strong interest in Japan’s case.  I am most grateful to Professor Kenichi Ohno and Professor Izumi Ohno, from the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS), Japan for assuming the role of key speakers for today’s seminar.  I would also like to appreciate JICA for sponsoring this seminar and to extend my appreciation to MOFED for organizing the audience by inviting State Ministers of relevant Ministries.

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

In its history, Japan has faced at least two formidable challenges during the past one and a half centuries and, fortunately, was able to overcome both of them successfully.

The first challenge was to ensure the smooth transition from a feudal to a modern society, the Meiji Restoration in 1868 being the turning point.  It was a critical moment for Japan to avoid colonization by Western powers that was prevalent in those days.  The goal of the Meiji Government was to build strong, modern armed forces to protect the nation from foreign aggression and, in parallel, to turn Japan into an industrialized economy.  It was a start from zero.  Therefore, capacity building was the first step to take.  The government sent a number of young, brilliant students and bureaucrats to Europe to learn about modern technologies, institutions, industries and so on.  Then the government invited Western technicians, engineers and scholars to Japan to build factories and railroads, to establish universities and so on.  Japanese counterparts absorbed technologies and knowhow as much as possible by working together with them.  The discipline and conscientiousness of the Japanese people played an important role in that process.  Initially, the government played the leading role in this process until the private sector was developed later.

The second challenge Japan faced was the reconstruction of the nation from the devastation of the war in the late 1940s and 50s.  Japan had lost many of the advances it had made because of the defeat, but well-trained human resources and technologies remained.  The missing elements at this point were money, machinery and raw materials, which were all required for production.  So the role the government played was to decide on priorities and allocate the few resources available most effectively to the priority sectors.  Unlike the Meiji era, defense was not a priority.  Therefore, resources were concentrated on economic recovery and the government pursued a road towards becoming an industrialized trading nation.

I will not go into the details as these will be presented by the Prof. Ohno’s.  However, I do want to draw your attention to two footnotes before I conclude.  First, Japan’s policies for economic development and reconstruction did work very well in the specific environment that characterized Japan in the respective eras mentioned.  Therefore, both the policies and the specific environments must be analyzed together.  For example, in the post-war era, Japan has depended on the bilateral security arrangement with the United States for its national security and has been spared huge defense spending that otherwise might have been required.  This was a great advantage for Japan.  Also, the IMF/ World Bank/ GATT regime guaranteed a free trade scheme, which provided enough space for Japan to develop as a trading nation, while the world was divided into two camps.

Second, the Japanese people had a tendency to internalize the Western technologies that were introduced.  Japanese engineers initially accepted foreign technologies as they were but soon modified them and produced their own technologies which would better fit Japanese economy and society.  This process of internalization of foreign technologies has been a driving force of the industrialized development of Japan for many years.

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I hope you keep my brief remarks in mind when considering how you can best use and incorporate Japanese experience to enhance your own policy for the development of Ethiopia.

Finally, let me express my wish that this seminar will be inclusive and participatory to create fruitful awareness that will contribute to Ethiopia’s overall development efforts.

Thank you!  Amesegenalehu!