JAPAN RULING PARTY PREPARES FINAL ECONOMIC PACKAGE
Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party
(LDP) drew up a final plan to expand domestic demand and boost
imports in time for Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone's visit to
Washington next week, LDP officials said.
    The plan calls for additional fiscal measures worth more
than 5,000 billion yen, a large-scale supplementary budget for
the current fiscal year started April 1, and concentration of
more than 80 pct of the annual public works budget in the first
half of the year, they said.
    Nakasone will explain the measures to U.S. Officials during
his visit to Washington starting April 29.

    The LDP plan will be the basis for a government package of
pump-priming measures expected to be unveiled in late May.
    The LDP said Japan should do more to reduce its trade
surplus. Its plan is expected to help increase economic growth
led by domestic demand, officials said.
    The government was also urged to review the ceiling on
budgetary requests for investment purposes in 1988/89. The
government has imposed a five pct cut in investment outlays in
the past five years in line with Nakasone's avowed policy of
fiscal reforms.

    The plan called on Japan to promote government purchases of
foreign goods and private sector imports of manufactured goods
by improving import financing, and to make clear official
procurement procedures for foreign supercomputers.
    The LDP also said Japan should contribute further to
society at large through measures such as doubling its official
development assistance to 7.6 billion dlrs in five years or so
instead of seven years as the government had originally
promised.
    The government was urged to work out a program to recycle
funds from Japan's trade surpluses to debt-ridden countries.

    The officials said the funds to be recycled would include
those from the private sector and others provided through the
government Export-Import Bank of Japan and Japan's Overseas
Economic Cooperation Fund.
    The plan also calls for the government to take steps to
help the development of African and other less developed
nations.
    The LDP called for adequate and flexible management of
monetary policy, such as a cut in interest rates on deposits
with the Finance Ministry's Trust Fund, and a tax cut to
promote plant and equipment investment.

 REUTER
