Contracts made outside Japan by major construction players in 2014 rose 6.5% from a year earlier to 1.9 trillion yen, recording consecutive four year increase, says Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. 34 out of 53 companies surveyed by the ministry said they look to expand their overseas businesses. The survey found that major challenges that the companies are tackling in overseas business are lack of ability to collect information, to study local market and to communicate with foreign entities.

Construction contracts won by Japanese businesses were concentrated in such countries as Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, China and Taiwan. Myanmar and Malaysia are considered promising markets as well as Vietnam and Indonesia, the companies answered.

34 companies have hired foreign employees with total number of 341 working currently, marking a sharp increase from 267 in 2013. Most of them are engineers who work as construction site managers, engineering designers, architects and cost estimators. (2015/05/01)