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Angkor Wat — “Granderthan anything left byGreece or Rome.”

Mekong’sbountiful fishharvest (top).Japanese expertshelp preserve theriver’s fish (above)and cultural heritage(left below).

Testament to ancientcivilizations and kingdoms stretchacross the entire landscape.When the Frenchman Henri

Mouhot first saw Cambodia’sAngkor Wat in the mid 19th cen-tury he marveled that the templewas a rival to “that of Solomon anderected by some Michelangelo” and“grander than anything left byGreece or Rome.”Today, a complex of temples at Angkor dating

from the 9th to the 15th centuries spreads magnifi-cently across 400 square kilometers and has becomeone of the world’s major tourist attractions despiteits remote and difficult access.In contrast, Bagan, in Myanmar’s central dry zone,

is one of the globe’s most hidden archeological won-ders, rarely visited but with so many temples, pagodasand stupas packed into an 80 square kilometer radiusthat experts are constantly puzzled by their numbers—2,100 or 4,400?—the first dating from the 10thcentury the latest perhaps only a few months old. Nestling peacefully on the banks of the Mekong

River, the old royal Laos capital of LuangPrabang is arguably one of the mostbeautiful towns in the world with its gen-tle fusion of 33 Buddhist temples, crum-bling French colonial architecture and astately 19th century pace of life. According to legend, the Shwedagon

Pagoda is more than 2,500 years old, butit still literally dazzles the skyline of Yan-gon, Myanmar’s noisy and downbeatformer capital, its solid brick stupa rising

326 feet into the air, literally covered in gleaminggold leaf. Other exquisite, if smaller, monuments dotvirtually every village, bustling modern cities andremote jungle clearings across much of southeastAsia.

Natural BeautyThe region’s natural beauty rivals its

monuments. The Mekong River is the main sinewof the region, flowing majestically from the highlandsof Tibet through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambo-dia and Viet Nam to the South China Sea 4,800 kilo-meters away.

It is the world’s 12th largest river, but maybe moreimportantly it is home to the largest inland fishingindustry in the world and supports an incredible1,300 fish varieties including the endangered Ir-rawaddy dolphins and giant catfish.The Mekong provides food, drinking water, irri-

gation, a major transport artery and energy to some60 million people living in its immediate vicinity andhelps support the entire 232 million populationspread across the so-called Mekong countries.

As majestic as the region’s history and naturalwonders are, however, its wars and invasions haveoften been equally spectacular.Bagan, for instance, was sacked by the Mongols

as early as 1287. The last decades of the 20th centurywitnessed the deaths of millions of people and thedestruction of towns, villages, homes, schools, hos-pitals and industrial complexes in various wars andthe Cambodian genocide. In the last few years the region has been bouncing

The Mekong provides food,drinking water, irrigation,transport and energy.

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along, enjoying, at times, spectacular economicgrowth, political turmoil and devastating natural dis-asters including cyclones and terrifying tsunamis.

Japanese FocusThe Mekong region, because of its proximity

and obvious economic and natural wounds, has beena major focus of Japanese foreign assistance for sev-eral decades. In 2007 Tokyo announced the Japan-Mekong Region Partnership Program to help expandtrade between the two blocs,promote regional integrationand tackle common regionalissues. In 2008, the Japan Inter-

national Cooperation Agency(JICA) and the 10-state Asso-ciation of Southeast Asian Na-tions (asean), which incor-porates all of the Mekong River countries with theexception of China, agreed to strengthen their coop-eration, encouraging further asean and regional co-operation, bolstering the asean secretariat and par-ticipating in various conflict prevention and peace-building activities (see below).As evidenced by those agreements JICA has in-

creasingly recognized the need for a regional ap-proach, whether in Southeast Asia or Africa, partic-ularly in the field of infrastructure to build airports,ports, roads, bridges and power plants.

With Japanese loans, grant aid and technical ex-pertise, the Mekong region is now criss-crossed witha series of strategic north-south, east-west highwayswhich are facilitating additional trade and peoplemovement. A 1,450-kilometer link between the Myanmar port

of Mawlamyaing and Danang in Viet Nam, by wayof Thailand and Laos, is almost complete. Already,goods which used to take two weeks by sea betweenBangkok and Hanoi now take only three days by the

overland route (see page 12).

Other DevelopmentsRoads spur other develop-

ment and projects. With theopening of the so-called East-West economic corridor linkingMyanmar with Viet Nam, specialeconomic zones are being estab-

lished in the Lao town of Savannakhet to spur in-dustrial growth and JICA is also encouraging plansfor tourist expansion in the region. A Japanese-assisted project to widen the highway

between the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi and itsprincipal port at Hai Phong helped create an indus-trial corridor of factories virtually the entire lengthof the road. Careful consideration has been taken to eliminate

potential bottlenecks along these economic lifelines.Border crossings are an obvious (turn to page 10) ACROSS THE WORLD

billions of dollars worth of well-intentioned developmentprojects lie idle and abandoned. Major causes of the collapse

of these so-called ‘whiteelephants’ are that in theoriginal project planning fewprovisions were envisaged tomake them sustainable—bytraining local personnel andembedding the principle of‘local ownership’ in thecommunities and governmentsexpected to benefit. In its official development

assistance (ODA) Japan hasattempted to avoid those pastmistakes by marrying projectswith long-term sustainability. As part of this effort Tokyo

established 10 Japan centers, innine Asian countries, includingthe Mekong states of Laos,Cambodia and two in Viet Nam.They are staffed by Japanese

teachers and experts with theaim, among others, of teachinglocal people the latest skills insubjects ranging fromcomputers to administrativemanagement or, in the

bureaucratic parlance,promoting ‘human resources.’Laos is one of the world’s

poorest countries. It began anopen-door economic policy aslong ago as 1986 but still lacksthe skilled management toensure continued growth. The Laos-Japan Center was

established in 2001 and lastyear the National University ofLaos began its first MBA (Masterof Business Administration)course on its campus in thesuburbs of the capital, Vientiane. One day recently some 30

students from high school,college and working personnelattended the opening of a short-term course on productionmanagement where they areexpected to learn bothproduction control and ways toincrease productivity.

LEARNING FROMMISTAKES

“I WOULD LIKE TO TELLYOU about my experiences—including my failures — and Iwant students to learn

important manufacturingperspectives,” Tsuyoshi Shimizu,the Japanese course leader witha 40-year engineering careerbehind him, told the class. Students looked uncertain

about his opening remarks,particularly the emphasis onanalyzing failure. Laosdeveloped in recent years undera socialist system in which suchan approach was not part of anycurriculum. But the locals were soon

appreciative. “These are high-level lectures by Japaneseexperts and the course is welldeveloped,” said ViengxayPhongxay, who works at a localUN agency. “It would be a greateconomic burden for me to tryto get an MBA in a foreigncountry.” JICA provides Japanese

experts who work with the localeconomic and managementfaculty. In addition to purelybusiness courses, the centersalso stage cultural andtraditional events from bothLaos and Japan itself to fostermutual understanding and aJapanese language courseencourages students to study inJapan and apply for positionswith Japanese companies. “The Japan center serves as ahub for human-resourcedevelopment. We hope to turnout many people who will leadmarket oriented reform anddevelopment,” according toManitoth Koodara, the presidentof the center. When it was first opened, JICA

underwrote all operating costs,but now local authoritiescontribute 50% and accordingto Japanese chief advisorMikiharu Sato, “In the nearfuture we hope Laos will be ableto run the center independently.”

The Mekong — a majorfocus of Japanese

foreign assistance forseveral decades.

JICA and ASEAN—Closer LinksTHE FIVE MEKONGSTATES are part of the 10-nation Association of SoutheastAsian Nations (ASEAN). JICA in recent years has been

developing closer working tieswith both groupings as well asthe individual countries. In 2008, JICA and ASEAN

agreed to cooperate in severalareas after identifying “theirrespective strengths andcomparative advantages as wellas areas where they cancomplement each other.” A central plank is to promote

further regional integrationimproving transportinfrastructure, standardizingexisting customs procedures,road regulations and otherpriority areas. Problems such as

environmental degradation,piracy, drug and humantrafficking, infectious diseasesand terrorism will be tackled. In an area which has been

wracked by recent wars, the twoparticipants also agreed towork toward both conflictprevention and enhancingpeace-building capacities.A joint study is being

undertaken to find ways ofstrengthening ASEAN’s mainadministrative body, itssecretariat, and a permanentJICA representative wasappointed to that body. ASEAN was first established

in 1967 by five original membercountries, namely, Indonesia,Malaysia, the Philippines,Singapore and Thailand. BruneiDarussalam became a member

in 1984, Viet Nam in 1995, Laosand Myanmar in 1997 andCambodia in 1999.The group’s stated aims are

to accelerate economic growth,social progress and culturaldevelopment and promotingregional peace and stability.The ASEAN Vision 2020

agreed the group should beoutward-looking, living in peace,stability and prosperity, bondedtogether in partnership indynamic development and in acommunity of caring societies.The ASEAN region has a

population of around 584million people, a total area ofsome 4.4 million squarekilometers, a combined grossdomestic product of someUS$1,507 billion and total tradeof US$1,710 billion.

Avoiding Past Mistakes—Saving Billions of Dollars

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