Parliamentary Vice-Minister Yoshida Attends the 5th ASEAN-Japan Smart Cities Network High Level Meeting

1. The 5th ASEAN-Japan Smart Cities Network High Level Meeting (hereinafter referred to as the "high level meeting")

The 5th high level meeting was hosted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism in Ibaraki Prefecture. This meeting brought together representatives of nine ASEAN Member States, including vice-minister and director-general level officials responsible for infrastructure, those of the cities chosen for the ASEAN Smart Cities Network (ASCN),* and those of Japanese companies, municipalities and governmental organizations. Its aim was to encourage these economies and cities to cooperate further through the ASCN. (The meeting was held in person and online.)

The high level meeting provided briefings on cooperation efforts between ASEAN cities and Japan, explanations of outstanding case examples of efforts by Japanese companies and cities, business matching events between ASEAN cities and Japanese companies, and other occasions.

*Note: The ASCN is an initiative launched by ASEAN that was inaugurated under the leadership of Singapore, the 2018 ASEAN chair. The initiative aims to promote cooperation toward the development of smart cities. Twenty-nine model cities from ten ASEAN member states were selected.

2. Speech by Parliamentary Vice-Minister Yoshida (video message)

At the opening ceremony of the high level meeting, Parliamentary Vice-Minister Yoshida delivered a speech in the form of a video message. He explained the position of smart cities defined in the Japan-ASEAN Future Design and Action Plan formulated in August 2023 and also introduced adopted case examples of the feasibility study (FS) on quality infrastructure related to Disaster Prevention: Resilience as a theme of this meeting.

Related Link

• The 5th ASEAN-Japan Smart Cities Network High Level Meeting website

Division in Charge

Trade Promotion Division, Trade and Economic Cooperation Bureau