2010年8月19日木曜日

Start of SME support in export control


Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry ("METI") announced on August 6, 2010 in its Press Release that they initiated a "Voluntary Security Export Controls Program" aimed at supporting voluntary export controls by small and medium enterprises ("SME").

Please find the article in following link.




Ooops, however, I know this press release is too general, bureaucratic and superficial. I guess many of people who read this don't fully understand what is the substantial point?
Let me translate it in simpler manner with its background.
  • On April 01, 2010, export control law was amended, and all exporters in Japan are required to have classification skill (if I strictly translate the law, to assign responsible person for classification) regardless of company size and product lines.

  • The problem is many of SMEs don't have such export control resource.

  • METI secured national budget for consultation and training of export control to SMEs in FY2010. The annual budget is JPY110 millions. (approx. US$1.3 millions)

  • CISTEC and JMC (Japan Machinery Center) are appointed as a contractor of this program. CISTEC take a role of dispatching consultant to SME for consultation of export control for FREE. JMC take a role of holding export control seminar for SMEs for FREE.

  • The program is exclusively for SME, and a big company is not eligible for this program. The eligible SME is defined in its capital amount and the number of employees. For example, in SME of manufacturing industry, the eligible company is the capital amount less than JPY300 millions, or the number of employees less than 300.

From public point of view, this program is good trial for improving export compliance in Japan. Also for other Asian countries who schedule to introduce solid export control practice, it is good to follow and learn from this experiment in Japan.

From consulting point of view, with hearing and consultation from SMEs, useful database and consulting skill may be build up.

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