Japan said on Wednesday it would create a roughly $10 billion financial fund to help Asian countries secure energy resources as the conflict in the Middle East has intensified competition for oil, Reuters notes.
The support, aimed at preventing spillover effects on Japan's own supply chains, will be channeled mainly through state-backed financial institutions such as the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and the Japan Export and Investment Insurance (NEXI).
Announcing the plan, Prime Minister Sanae Takaitsi said the support would be equivalent to up to 1.2 billion barrels of oil, or about one year's worth of crude oil imports from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
He spoke after a meeting of the Asia Zero Emissions Community (AZEC), a Japan-led initiative aimed at accelerating decarbonization and energy transition in Asia.
Compared to Japan, Southeast Asian countries have smaller oil reserves, making supplies of crude oil and petroleum products such as naphtha – a key raw material for plastics – increasingly limited. The production disruption in Southeast Asia has sparked concerns among Japanese healthcare providers who rely on Asia for critical supplies such as containers, tubes and gloves.
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