Jakarta, 18 October 2019: The Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), the Mission of Japan to ASEAN, ASEAN Secretariat, and the ASEAN Foundation co-hosted a photo exhibition on ASEAN infrastructure projects supported by the Government of Japan. The photo exhibition, entitled ‘Bright Future Achieved by Quality Infrastructure in ASEAN -Connecting ASEAN-’ was held at the lobby of the new ASEAN Secretariat office until 1 November 2019.

A lecture was held at the ASEAN Secretariat to commemorate the opening of the exhibition. Ambassador of Japan to ASEAN H.E. Akira Chiba, Secretary-General of ASEAN H. E. Lim Jock Hoi, and Ambassador of Viet Nam to ASEAN H.E. Tran Duc Binh delivered the opening remarks. Afterwards, Prof Yuki Hirota from Saitama University and President Director of PT MRT Jakarta Dr William Sabandar gave their keynote speech. ERIA’s Director of Capacity Building Mr Jeremy Gross moderated the event.

In his presentation, Prof Hirota described Japan's contribution to infrastructure development in ASEAN, contribution to economic development through infrastructure development and the Japanese approach, infrastructure demand in the Asian region, and the future of Japan-ASEAN infrastructure cooperation.

Mr Sabandar stated that during the construction and operation of MRT Jakarta, which was built through a partnership between Japan and Indonesia, they received support from Japanese companies not only in terms of technology, but also in terms of ethics. He mentioned many examples, including improvements on the work environment and the way MRT Jakarta has affected people’s habits such as queueing in line, no eating and drinking in the train and the station premises, and many more. He also reminisced about the process of renaming the MRT station nearby the ASEAN Secretariat, which was initially named Sisingamangaraja Station, to ASEAN Station.

ERIA’s Chief Operating Officer Koji Hachiyama gave the closing remarks in which he mentioned ERIA’s project Comprehensive Asian Development Plan (CADP) 2.0 and the ongoing CADP 3.0. Most of the projects that were featured in the Photo Exhibition were also listed in CADP 2.0.

Around 100 people attended the lecture, including representative ambassadors from East Asia Summit countries, and ASEAN’s Deputy Secretary-General for Community & Corporate Affairs (DSG CCA), Mr Michael Tene.

Photo credit: group photo, photo of SG Lim, photo of Ambassador Tran, and photo of Ambassador Chiba courtesy of ASEAN Secretariat.