Japan finance minister to visit Singapore, Vietnam next week

TOKYO, Jan 6 (Reuters) – Japanese Finance Minister
Shunichi Suzuki is set to visit Singapore and Vietnam to meet
high government officials from Jan. 10-13, the Ministry of
Finance said on Friday.

There will be no media opportunities during his visits, but
the minister will brief reporters on results of the trip at a
news conference after he returns, the ministry said.

Along with Indonesia, Japan co-chairs this year’s meetings
of ASEAN+3, including China and South Korea, and it will also
host the Group of Seven (G7) leaders’ meeting.

During the visits, Suzuki will meet Lawrence Wong,
Singapore’s deputy prime minister who doubles as finance
minister, and Vietnamese finance chief Ho Duc Phoc.

“On top of bilateral ties … we will discuss vital
agenda such as financial cooperation within the region,” Suzuki
told reporters. “We will also make use of talks with Singapore
for achieving our goal of making Tokyo a global financial
centre.”

Turning to domestic affairs, Suzuki shrugged off
speculation that the government may consider raising the sales
tax in the future to pay for its plan to boost childcare
spending, following such remarks by ruling party tax heavyweight
Akira Amari.

“The government is not making any specific consideration
towards the way future sales tax should be. I think Amari’s
remarks are his own,” Suzuki said.
(Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by Himani Sarkar and
Kim Coghill)