GREATER NAGOGYA INITIATIVE Monthly Newsletter Issue No.10 (Mar, 2007)

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GREATER NAGOGYA INITIATIVE Monthly Newsletter Issue No.10 (Mar, 2007)
Greater Nagoya Means Greater Business Opportunities
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1. Event: GNI Invitation Program for Chinese Medical Device Companies (Feb 28, 2007)
2. First Anniversary of Greater Nagoya Initiative Center (GNIC)
3. Report on GNI Invitation Program (Jan 17 to 19, 2007)
4. Report on Network Meeting for Foreign-Affiliated Companies (Feb 14, 2007)
5. Greater Nagoya’s Focus on the Environment
6. Spring in Greater Nagoya, Beauty of Cherry Blossoms
*Please contact GNIC (Ms. Miwa or Ms. Miura) for further details on the above events.

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1. Event: GNI Invitation Program for Chinese Medical Device Companies (Feb 28, 2007)
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Chinese corporations in medical, health, and welfare industry were invited to Greater Nagoya by GNI. Since Greater Nagoya is focusing on the development of medical care, health care, and public welfare industry (Mie Medical Valley Project), it will help pursue and develop the project further. On February 28’s program included presentations by the Chinese corporations, business-partner-matching meetings, and a reception.

Please see details on the web (in Japanese only) or contact GNIC: http://www.pref.mie.jp/topics/2007020140.htm
Mie Medical Valley Project: http://www.mvp.pref.mie.jp/e/

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2. First Year Anniversary of Greater Nagoya Initiative Center (GNIC)
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Greater Nagoya Initiative Center (GNIC) was established in February 2006 as a Greater Nagoya Initiative’s (established in July 2004) one-stop service center for foreign-affiliated corporations. Leaders of public and private sectors in Greater Nagoya are the board members of GNIC, such as Mr. Masaharu Shibata -chairman and CEO of NGK Insulators, Ltd- as a chairman of GNIC. The governors of the Greater Nagoya region (Aichi, Gifu and Mie prefectures) are also board members of GNIC. GNIC has bilingual staff in English and Japanese. GNIC provides complimentary services and coordinates with appropriate organizations to help support foreign-affiliated corporations. Up to today, 15 foreign-affiliated corporations successfully established their offices in Greater Nagoya with GNIC’s support. There are many other corporations preparing and ready for establishment as well. Those established offices in Greater Nagoya are corporations from US, China, UK, Germany, Australia, France, and Sweden, including industries in IT, automotives, manufacturing, logistics, real estate, advertising, home furnishing, and travel. GNIC visited Europe and the United States (7 countries) and visited about 100 corporations. GNIC also held 15 seminars in Japan with participants of 1,600 people (total). GNIC’s activities and Greater Nagoya’s economy were covered by many domestic and overseas media such as Wall Street Journal, Business Week etc. In our second year to come, we are planning various kinds of events, seminars, symposiums, invitation programs, overseas missions, etc. to further develop and spread recognition of Greater Nagoya.

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3. Report on GNI Invitation Program (Jan 17 – 19, 2007)
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From January 17 to 19, 2007, GNI invited executives of 15 foreign-affiliated corporations (including one government organization) to participate in “Greater Nagoya Cluster Forum”. Foreign-affiliated corporations had opportunities to promote and present their products including services, and provided presentations at the forum. GNI coordinated business-partner-matching meetings during the program and organized industrial tours. We received feedbacks from those participated in our program that many of the corporations now have much clear and specific visions to invest in Greater Nagoya. GNI will stay in contact with participants and provide further support. At the forum, a total of about 2,600 people (including about 2,000 visitors) participated and 133 corporations and organizations set up their booths.

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4. Report on Network Meeting for Foreign-Affiliated Companies (Feb 14, 2007)
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On February 14, I-BAC (Aichi-Nagoya International Business Access Center, who is GNI’s member organization) organized an event, “Network Meeting for Foreign-Affiliated Companies” in Greater Nagoya. This meeting is held every year since 2003 for foreign-affiliated companies in Greater Nagoya to exchange information. Mr. Hideaki Imamura senior vice president and director of the Boston Consulting Group K.K. in Greater Nagoya gave keynote speech at this meeting on the current business situations in Greater Nagoya as well as business opportunities for foreign-affiliated corporations. About 100 people participated in the meeting, including about 40 foreign-affiliated corporations in Greater Nagoya, and representatives from public and private sectors. Mr. Imamura mentioned that the economy and industry in Greater Nagoya is growing steadily, but Greater Nagoya will experience changes in the industrial and human resource structures which will then increase business opportunities for foreign-affiliated corporations. Foreign-affiliated corporations will have opportunities in alliances and integration; joint venture business in the BRICs market; in the service field (not the production field); development of software, designing, and consulting; and development of human resources on above-mentioned. Attendees found the meeting to be useful and informative with statistical data supporting the arguments. Some participants commented it would have been more useful had they presented Greater Nagoya’s corporations’ actual plans and visions on these issues.

Network Meeting: http://www.i-bac.jp/news.html#news03
I-BAC: http://www.i-bac.jp/index.html

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5. Greater Nagoya’s Focus on the Environment
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Greater Nagoya is promoting business and projects which take over the philosophy and achievements of the 2005 world exposition held in Greater Nagoya. This expo’s theme was ‘Environmental protection with the development of new technologies and harmonization of human life with nature’. The energy plants located in the expo site are now moved into Central Japan Airport City (where Greater Nagoya’s international airport, Centrair, is located) for experiments. Experiments on leading-edge fuel battery energy buses and hydrogen energy station are also conducted within this city following the expo. These experiments are conducted under the project promoted and public and private sectors to concentrate business and research institutions on new energy within the Central Japan Airport City. Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Greater Nagoya also established an organization called”Eco-Pro-Net” to support developments of technologies to protect environment from disruptions. Greater Nagoya is also designated by the Japanese government as Japan’s candidate city for the international conference on environmental protection to be held in 2010 (the tenth conference of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD, COP10)). Greater Nagoya’s industry is also focusing on ecology and environment. Hybrid cars, charging devices for electric cars, ceramic parts for diesel engine catalytic converters, exhaust gas NOx sensors, etc are a few examples of advanced products developed in Greater Nagoya.

New energy plants experiments: http://www.nedo.go.jp/english/archives/180919/180919.html

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6. Spring in Greater Nagoya, Beauty of Cherry Blossoms
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Cherry blossoms are Japan’s one of the national flowers and they are a sign of long-waited spring’s arrival. When spring comes, you will see the cherry trees in full bloom in parks, streets, historical places, and all over Japan. The sceneries with cherry blossoms and beautiful pink petals on the streets and rivers are breathtaking. People in Japan have a custom to have picnics and parties under the trees in spring – we call this event “Ohanami” (cherry-blossom viewing). One of the best selected places for Ohanami are located in Greater Nagoya. The reasons why the cherry blossoms are so special for Japanese people go back to our ancient times. People forecasted the weather and the amount of harvest by how cherry blossoms bloom in spring. It often shows a good sing of summer,and harvest. Therefore, Ohanami was regarded as a special event to predict the weather and the harvest. It is said that cherry blossoms also have healing effects to people’s body and mind, because of their color, pink. The Japanese cherry blossoms are something that you will never see anywhere in the world and we all await for this season to come.

Ohanami at Nagoya Castle: http://www.city.nagoya.jp/global/en/notes/sightseeing/nagoya00027320.html