TOKYO : Japan is aiming to lead the Group of Seven financial leaders to agree on establishing a mutually beneficial partnership between low and middle-income nations and advanced countries to strengthen global supply chains, Japanese officials said on Tuesday.
The officials unveiled the plan ahead of the G7 financial leaders' May 11-13 summit, which Japan chairs in the Japanese central city of Niigata, where strengthening of supply chains will be high on the agenda.
"We are aiming to diversify supply chains so that they won't be concentrated in particular countries such as China," one official told Reuters.
The official added that the G7 needs to agree on a scheme in which low and middle-income countries can play a bigger role in the middle to lower end of supply chains for energy-related products, by engaging in refining minerals and processing to manufacturing parts and assembling.
To achieve that end, the G7 will coordinate efforts with like-minded countries and institutions such as the World Bank.
At its previous meeting in Washington D.C. last month, the G7 underscored the need to enhance supply chain resilience and preserve economic efficiency to ensure economic security.
The G7 committed to jointly empowering low and middle-income countries to play bigger roles in supply chains through mutually beneficial cooperation by combining finance, knowledge and partnership to sustain development and enhance global supply chain resilience, it said in a statement.