Japanese Cabinet OKs growth strategy

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet approved on Friday its growth strategy, targeting a 3-percent annual expansion of nominal Gross domestic product (GDP) and restarts of nuclear power plants. The growth strategy is the "Third Arrow" in his ambitious economic policies called "Abenomics" platform to end nearly two decades of the country's deflation and revitalize its economy, which includes easing monetary policy and massive government spending. Under the strategy, the government aims for three percent nominal growth per year and two percent real growth of the world's third-biggest economy over the next decade, which would raise Japan's per capita gross national income by JPY 1.5 million (USD 16,000) in 10 years. The government also targets an annual 10 percent increase of private-sector capital investment in the next three years to around JPY 70 trillion (USD 740 billion), the level seen before the 2008 global financial turmoil. It also calls for the creation of special economic zones to raise private investment and attract foreign capital and human resources, resumption of idled nuclear power plants, as well as more participation of women in the workforce. In the blueprints adopted on the same day, the government pledged to halve its primary budget deficit by fiscal 2015 and return to surplus by fiscal 2020. "We have drawn a road map toward economic revitalization and fiscal rehabilitation. It just remains to carry them out," Abe told reporters after the Cabinet meeting. The premier is expected to explain the growth strategy and the blueprints at the Group of Eight summit in Northern Ireland starting next Monday. "I will restore a strong economy. My growth strategy, the third of my three "arrows," will now take its turn. The growth strategy decided today will be the start line," Abe, who took office last December, said in a video message released by the Cabinet Office. "I will be certain to bring stability to politics, and in the autumn I will launch the second round of the growth strategy," he pledged. "I myself will push forward, promoting Japan as the top seller. There is no reason whatsoever that this was achievable by the Japanese of the 1970's and 1980's but not achievable now. Japan will once more be able to play an active part in the heart of the world," he said.