David Warren

UK Foreign and Health Ministers in Japan

The big economic news here this week is the collapse of Japanese exports in January - 46% down on last year.   The big firms are laying off staff, cutting back production (but not R and D) and generally settling in for a long and difficult haul.

But not quite everywhere.   Alan Johnson, the UK Health Secretary, has been with us for four days, with a high-powered delegation from the Department of Health and the UK industry (as well as the head of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) to talk to the Japanese pharmaceutical companies.  They're major investors in the UK - doing research, sales, manufacturing, and employing hundreds of people.  The UK team give detailed presentations about the new NHS framework, stressing how important innovation is going to be in developing cost-effective treatments, and explaining the new pricing arrangments for companies.  The Japanese firms listen closely, ask questions, raise issues, for example about how fast new drugs can be approved. The impression I get is that this sector is less affected by the economic downturn than others.  Indeed, a number of companies look interested in expanding their investments at some point.   Eisai, one of the largest Japanese pharma firms, is opening a new "Knowledge Centre" in Hatfield in June.   

Meanwhile, the focus of much of the rest of our work remains the economic crisis, and particularly the London Summit of the major economies on 2 April.   Foreign Office Minister Mark Malloch-Brown visited on 19 Febraury and called on Prime Minister Aso and Foreign Minister Nakasone, as well as talking to the press.   He emphasises the need to have a co-ordinated international response to a global crisis on this scale, and to ensure that we don't just slip back into the bad old days of protectionism - and that we also make sure that the poorest countries don't suffer in a crisis that is not of their making.   The Japanese agree on all these points.  They're loaning the International Monetary Fund $100 billion to make it easier to lend to countries in need.   And they're also focusing their assistance specifically on Asia and Africa.   Japan has to find a way of stimulating its domestic demand, like everyone else.   But its most important leadership role is more likely to be to get global demand moving.

The questions to Mark at the Foreign Correspondents Club tend to be about the Japanese Finance Minister who had to resign after allegedly being drunk, rather than the state of the world economy, but that's life (and news), I guess.

Posted at 16:27 02 March 2009 by David Warren  |  Comments[1]