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4 Japan banks on energy,
environment By Hisane Masaki
will come from the government's special
oil account. The government earmarked 5.4 billion
yen (about $46 million) in the fiscal 2006 budget
for purchasing credits. Maximum funds of 12.2
billion yen are available for credit acquisition
for fiscal 2006. Japan plans to achieve 1.6% of
the 6% greenhouse-gas reduction target through the
Kyoto mechanisms.
To support Japanese
firms in acquiring emission credits through CDM
projects, JBIC is rushing to sign partnership agreements
with
developing countries. In recent months alone, JBIC
has signed such agreements with Singapore, El
Salvador, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Thailand,
Indonesia, India and Brazil.
The CDM
partnership agreements seek to promote CDM
projects through JBIC financing and to support
acquisition by Japanese firms of emission credits
generated from such projects. JBIC will promote
information sharing with the developing countries
on candidate CDM projects there, provide such
information to Japanese firms and consider
financial support for those candidate CDM
projects.
"JBIC is making active efforts
to promote the Kyoto mechanisms by making maximum
use of its long-cultivated ties with developing
country governments through loan and guarantee
operations and its overseas network of
representative offices," JBIC said.
JBIC's future JBIC was created
in October 1999 through a merger between the
Export-Import Bank of Japan and the Overseas
Economic Cooperation Fund, a government-affiliated
aid organization in charge of implementing ODA
loans.
Although JBIC is to be split up
again in 2008, its current main functions,
including ODA loans and export-import finance,
will not only be maintained but continue to be
placed under government supervision. This means
the government will not lose a key vehicle to pump
public funds into Japan's drive for oil, gas and
other resources, and also for CDM projects.
The cabinet of then prime minister
Junichiro Koizumi decided last December to
streamline eight government-affiliated financial
institutions, including JBIC, through merger,
privatization and abolition. Koizumi's Liberal
Democratic Party-led coalition pushed bills
promoting administrative reform, including one to
streamline the public lenders, through the Diet,
Japan's parliament, in May.
JBIC 's ODA
loan operation is to be taken over by the Japan
International Cooperation Agency (JICA), a
government-affiliated aid organ under the
jurisdiction of the Foreign Ministry. Japan's ODA
extended bilaterally to developing countries
consist of yen loans, grant aid and technical
assistance. JICA currently provides only technical
assistance but also will extend ODA loans and
grant aid after taking over JBIC's ODA loan
operation.
While maintaining the rest of
its operations, including export loans, JBIC,
along with four other public lenders, is to become
part of a new wholly government-owned special
corporation to be established in October 2008.
Hisane Masaki is a Tokyo-based
journalist, commentator and scholar on
international politics and economy. Masaki's
e-mail address isyiu45535@nifty.com .
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