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Report
No.240403 |
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- Domestic - |
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Government Promotes Domestic Production of Bio-fuels Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met with Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Toshikatsu Matsuoka at the prime minister's official residence on November 1, when he revealed an idea for increasing domestic production of bio-fuels from the present level up to an annual 6 million kilo litters (equivalent of 3.6 million barrels of crude oil). Prime minister instructed agriculture minister to draft a roadmap for achieving this, which should include concrete plans for introducing bio-fuels. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) has earlier put up a plan to promote introducing a minimum of 50,000 kilo litters of bio-fuels in five year period. Far surpassing it, the prime minister's target is a very aggressive one, making the posture of Abe cabinet clear that expanding the domestic production of bio-fuels is one of its policy priority. The government held a meeting for the promotion of Biomass Nippon Strategy [General Biomass Strategy for Japan] on November 10, which was attended, beside MAFF, by officials of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT) and the Ministry of Environment (MOE) etc. The meeting confirmed that related ministries will join forces on a plan to increase domestic production of bio-fuels to an annual 6 million kilo litters as instructed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. At the meeting, Senior Vice Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Masayuki Kunii emphasized the importance of cooperation among related ministries in studying possible concrete measures to take, saying "This is an all-out government undertaking. I would put together by the end of the fiscal year a solid image of what steps should be taken." At present, some 30 kilo litters of bio-fuels are domestically produced in a year in Hokkaido and Okinawa on an experimental basis using sugar cane, cane molasses and scrap woods of construction. In order to expand production to 6 million kilo litters, it is deemed necessary to achieve technological development that will allow efficient utilization of rice straws and ligneous or woody bio-mass, tax measures to reduce bio-fuel prices to lower than price of gasoline, and provision of conditions for enhancing the share of bio-fuel mix in gasoline, in addition to infrastructure consolidation such as production facilities. Increased production of domestic bio-fuels is gathering expectation as a way to strengthen international competitiveness, also to enhance food supply capacity of domestic agriculture, to reduce green house gas emission and to deal with soaring prices of crude oil. |
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