The EU Gateway Programme
What is the connection between an EU export promotion programme and Japan’s policy on climate change?
More than you might think …
Last year Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions 25% to 1990s levels by 2020. Keen to assist this ambitious goal is a plethora of European small and medium-sized enterprises.
So the timing was perfect when 41 European firms from 16 EU member states visited Japan this February. Under the umbrella of the EU Gateway Programme, the trade mission showcased construction technologies as well as environmental and energy technologies, two of six sectors promoted under the programme in Japan. Participants say they hope for real business opportunities from Hatoyama’s pledge. Thorsten Hickmann, CEO of Eisenhuth, a German maker of components for fuel cells, noted that their fuel cell business grew 10% in 2008. Meanwhile, their traditional business areas declined.
“This reflects the overall trend in Europe,” says Hickmann. “Environmental technology is set to grow. It is a future industry. We believe that Japan and the rest of Asia have great potential as markets, and we are expecting some concrete moves by the government to reduce CO2 emissions soon.”
The EU funded and managed Gateway Programme offers European firms logistic and financial help to develop business in Japan. At the core of the week-long missions are two-day trade shows that, together with pre-arranged meetings, allow European firms to meet a large number of potential Japanese business partners in a short period of time.
Sometimes things move very quickly, as Gerold Hacker, sales representative of RZ Holzindustrie, an Austrian firm in the wood business, can attest.
Participating in his first mission in 2005, Hacker showed a homemade video of their Austrian production facilities to potential Japanese clients. To his surprise, he returned from Japan with orders for 10 containers of wood. “You need a little luck to meet the right people,” says Hacker. “The EU Gateway Programme is a great help in finding those people.”
But sometimes more patience is needed. Vladimír Crhonek, sales manager at AGROP NOVA, has participated in four missions and is hoping for his first contract with a Japanese client. The Czech firm sells NOVATOP, a system of large glued and laminated wood components for the construction industry.
At first they came with the “wrong product,” he says. “Although our solid wood product was good quality, it was too expensive for the Japanese market and Japanese clients couldn’t find uses for it.” What’s more, Japanese industry standards only covered chipboard and plywood, not solid wood. Crhonek says they learnt a useful lesson and now offer a product of the same high quality, but better suited to the Japanese market and standards.
Rudie Filon, counsellor, head of press, public and cultural affairs section for the Delegation of the European Union to Japan, is an old hand when it comes to EU Gateway. He saw the programme emerge from an idea in the mid-1980s and later managed the first round of Gateway in Japan. Since its official launch in 1994 the programme has come a long way, he says.
“Some 2,750 European companies have participated in 101 events attended by over 85,000 Japanese potential business partners,” says Filon with evident pride. Although, he also notes that there is no data on new business that the programme has facilitated. “We need to monitor this in the future to know what return we get on our investment.”
One of the EU Gateway Programme’s strongest points is EU branding, Filon argues. “The EU is often linked in the mind of the Japanese to quality. To put the EU flag on this kind of activity not only raises visibility, but it also automatically adds value.
“Europe is a source of high-quality products, not just luxury goods but also industrial goods and technologies. This is what the EU Gateway brings to Japan.”
Will the Hatoyama administration help bring more of those European goods to Japan? Filon is cautious. “We will have to judge Japan on what it does, and not on what it says,” he stresses. “Our message is this: we Europeans are ready to enter the Japanese market with technologies needed here. We are waiting for the doors to open.”
For more information about the EU Gateway Programme, see www.eu-gateway.eu/ and to apply for participation in one of the EU Gateway Business missions see: www.eu-gateway.eu