Access Asia Now: Home Again

By Robert Clark
Dean of the Schroeder Family School of Business Administration
University of Evansville

It is difficult to imagine landing at Chicago’s O’Hara International Airport two hours before leaving Tokyo – the miracle of crossing the International Date Line in the Pacific, but the Access Asia Now Trade Mission has arrived back in Evansville after spending two weeks exploring opportunities for economic development and partnerships with businesses and institutions in Malaysia and Japan.

The Mission delegation led by Evansville’s Mayor Weinzapfel completed the last leg of its mission in Japan. In 2006, Japan represented $831 million (5th place internationally) in Indiana exports, up 8.1% from 2005. This underscores the importance of the Japan to the regions economy. LaShone Gibson, Senior Associate Director for the Institute for Global Enterprise in Indiana, who oversaw the organization of the mission, noted that these were important factors in the development of the trade mission

The trade delegation learned of opportunities in Japan and also of the critical importance of developing relationships with the region’s leaders. As noted by U.S. Minister for Commercial Affairs John Peters from the U.S. Embassy in Japan, “this is a region of the world that develops relationships then follows with business activities.” He noted that in Japan, Indiana is particularly well known as a hospitable host to Japanese firms moving operations overseas. Approximately 2,000 Japanese manufacturers have U.S. operations and there are more than 200 of them in Indiana. Current information indicates that there are 100-150 Japanese firms finalizing or working to develop plans to expand operations in the U.S.

Southwest Indiana’s most notable example is Toyota. The economic impacts of Toyota’s operations in Princeton have been calculated at over $1 billion. This is in addition to the psychological benefits the region receives as the host of a major successful manufacturing facility that defies a trend to outsource to Asia. For a web site overview of Indiana firms with foreign investment please see: http://www.in.gov/iedc/maps/foreign.html

A highlight of the Mission was the delegation’s visit to Tahara, Gibson County’s ‘Friendship City’ and home to Toyota’s Tahara plant that was the “mother plant” for Princeton’s Toyota plant. Connie Wellmeyer, Assistant General Manager at the Princeton Plant and member of the delegation noted that Toyota’s vehicle loading operations were impressive. In addition delegation member, Todd Mosby, Executive Director of the Gibson County Economic Development Corporation expressed his view that their contacts with Toyota suppliers reflected the importance of developing personal relationships.

The Access Asia Now Trade delegation found that after almost a decade of malaise the Japanese economy was on the rebound and is resuming its leadership role as the world’s second largest economy. The Japanese have increased spending on services and education. In addition, it was noted that as their economy moves forward the Japanese manufacturers are taking another look at their global opportunities and with this review they note a bit of China fatigue, i.e. for products that are not labor intensive China may not be the ideal operation center. This represents an opportunity for American businesses interested in Japan and vice versa. An area noted that are of particular interest to U.S. firms would be environmental issues such as asbestos abatement, etc., areas where American businesses have superior expertise and Japanese mandates are of recent vintage.

An additional area of interest to Japanese consumers is tourism. U.S. Embassy officials made specific mention of the importance of attracting the large and growing population of retiring Japanese consumers to our region. This specific opportunity requires a regional approach to developing materials to target and attract foreign tourists – in this case the Japanese. To the economic development representatives from Northern Kentucky, Vanderburgh, and Gibson counties, it was clear that there are a number of attractions in the area that could be packaged as a region…..The Embassy representative specifically mentioned Evansville’s Westside Nut Club Fall Festival, noting that Festivals are of particular attraction to Japanese tourists. The representative then noted additional areas of interest to Japanese tourists, such as Lincoln related sites, gaming attractions, including both casino and horse racing, and nature tourism, such as Audubon Park in Kentucky, etc. It was clear that there are significant regional attractions that should be packaged to attract tourist spending. These are cooperative opportunities that represent economic development opportunities for the region that will strengthen the diversity of the region’s economy.

The trade mission delegation repeatedly heard the importance of demonstrating to the Asian region our interest in doing business and working together for the economic benefit of all. It was emphasized that we need to be sure to “get to the Trade Shows,” in Japan and keep coming so that Japan will feel very comfortable with the relationship that develops, and this message was consistent with the Malaysian business community advice.

In meetings with leaders of the Japanese External Trade Organization (JETRO) two pieces of advice were offered to the delegation:

It is important to get information on the region translated into Japanese – provide a small guidebook for the area in Japanese.
Recognize that economic incentives are very important and that Japanese firms will prepare comparative data, but personal relationships are also very important to the final decision.

Following up on the success of the delegation will be an important aspect of continuing to present the attractiveness of the region to Japanese and Malaysian firms desiring overseas sites and for U.S. firms desiring partners overseas. All of these factors are important for regional economic development to move forward and attract jobs and economic development to the Greater Evansville region. The representatives from industry, education, government, and economic development agencies were great ambassadors in carrying the flag for the Greater Evansville region, and developing relationships for future collaborative efforts.