Apr 26, 2007, 15:43 GMT
Cologne, Germany - Services, such as product testing, legal advice or translation, are playing a growing role in Germany-Japan trade, according to experts in Cologne on Thursday.
'This involves a huge market and a growing section of it,' said Kerstin Teicher, chief executive of the Dusseldorf-based DJW Germany- Japan Business Club, after a conference attended by 200 specialists.
In both nations, services account for about 70 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) and of employment.
The DJW has 1,300 members and promotes trade links with an emphasis on helping German medium-sized companies. It has several prominent German business figures on its executive board.
The DJW points out there is heavy demand at the moment for legal advice, technical services, intercultural coaching, exhibition organizing and translation in bilateral business dealings which are often hampered by the language barrier and regulatory differences.
Members of the DJW include millionaire businessman Juergen Grossmann, forthcoming chief executive of giant utility RWE, Ludolf von Wartenberg of the German Industry Confederation and Bruno Braun, chief executive of TUeV Rheinland Group.
Teicher said, 'There are no specific statistics on trade in services between Japan and Germany, but demand on both sides is enormous.'
She said freight-forwarding and travel were particularly important sectors, with major opportunities catering to the more than 500 German companies operating in Japan and more than 1,000 Japanese companies with offices, warehouses or plants in Germany.
'The legal area illustrates that,' she said. 'In Germany, only 10 Japanese lawyers are licensed to practise. In Japan, there is only a single registered lawyer from Germany and one patent attorney.'
Braun, whose TUeV company certifies products' compliance with regulations, said Japan remained the most important nation in the booming Asian market and the centrepiece of external business for TUeV Rheinland, an enterprise with a world workforce of 8,500.
Currently TUeV Rheinland books annual Asian sales of 155 million euros (211 million dollars). Its process and product testing business is growing fast in China, and it is also active in Thailand, South Korea, India and Vietnam.
In Japan, where TUeV Rhineland began Asian operations in 1978, it is now licensed by the Japanese authorities as a testing institution for the Japanese market as well, Braun pointed out.
Two years ago it opened its German Technology Assessment Centre in Yokohama, where its engineers can test electrical appliances, medical technology, vehicles and even robots for compliance with EU rules.
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