By Tanny.E.Vahi
THE Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) yesterday held its 2018 Press Seminar at the IBS Hotel.
Resident Representative Mr Kyoji Mizutani in his speech acknowledged the success of Japanese assistance and complimented JICA’s role in the development process of Solomon Islands.
Mr Mizutani expressed the wish to further relations between the Solomons and JICA.
“JICA expects volunteers to live among the people of the country to which they are dispatched and to pursue their activities with local people to contribute to the country’s socioeconomic development, making effective use of their abilities and experiences,” he said.
A panel of four speakers then explored various themes of the development cooperation that ranged from JOCV/SV, GA-Kukum Highway, TC-Healthy Village, Forestry, J-PRISM, Fisheries, JPP-LEAF, training and finally the future of the cooperation, which will likely take the form of partnership, the next step beyond development cooperation and assistance.
JICA’s goals include; (1) to contribute to the socioeconomic development or reconstruction of developing countries and region, (2) to strengthen friendship and mutual understanding between developing countries and regions and Japan, and (3) to give back to society the fruits of volunteer-activity experience.
There was also an exchange of ideas concerning JICA volunteer programmes, an area that both organisations are focusing on, and the development of institutional framework and fostering of human resources.
The relationship between Solomon Islands and Japan is getting more comprehensive and multi-layered. To cope with this change, JICA’s role needs to change from simple cooperation to mediating and promoting collaboration between various companies of the two countries.
