April.14.2009

On the 14th of April 2009, H.E Mr.Abdul-Rahman Humood Al-Otaibi, Ambassador of the State of Kuwait to Japan, and Mr Faraj Al-Hajeri, the Third Secretary of the Embassy, have met Ms Sadako Ogata, President of Japan International Cooperation Agency JICA, in the presence of Professor Yamada, Executive director of JICA in the Middle East.

During the meeting, HE the Ambassador carried a vision of a future cooperation between the State of Kuwait and the Agency, in the technical and technological fields, as well as training programs, and which will have positive results on the bilateral relations between Japan and Kuwait.

H.E. stressed on the fact that Kuwait has a long history in supporting the development around the world, through the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development, whose aid has exceeded the boundaries of the Arab world to reach countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, and the contribution to the Arab Fund for Development, based in Kuwait. For this reason, although Kuwait has exceeded the rate set by the agency (based on the capita income), it is concerned in creating a framework for technical cooperation and make use of the Agency’s experts to train executives in the scientific and technological fields.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency JICA, which has a variety of activities to support developing countries, has a number of branches in the Arab world. The agency's office in northern Iraq (Erbil) is the most recent branch that has been established recently.

Meanwhile, Ms Ogata commended the efforts made by the State of Kuwait in the humanitarian areas, and that the Agency is very interested in finding ways to establish a joint cooperation between with the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development. Furthermore, Ms Ogata pointed out that the latest collaboration between Kuwait and the Agency was in the year 1998, and that JICA’s operations in the Middle East have been decreasing during the last few years.

At the end, both parties have scheduled a meeting for next week to set up a process for technical cooperation with the State of Kuwait.