OGATA Sadako

JICA President Mrs. Sadako Ogata began a four-day visit to Korea and China beginning Sept. 1 during which she will meet with government, aid, development and academic officials and deliver a speech in Shanghai.

During her first day in Seoul Wednesday, Mrs. Ogata’s schedule includes meetings and discussions with former Prime Minister Han Seung-soo, Chairman and President Dongsoo Kim of Korea’s Export-Import Bank, government and academic officials and the Japanese ambassador to Korea.

JICA and the Export-Import Bank’s Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF) have forged a close partnership and expect to co-finance projects in the near future.

On Thursday Mrs. Ogata was scheduled to meet President Park Dae Won of the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) which was established in 1991 with aims similar to those of JICA – providing technical assistance and grant aid to developing countries. They have met twice previously in Tokyo.

The two organizations have formed a close working relationship in recent years and have conducted several joint projects as part of a global movement toward closer working relationships between donors.
Korea increasingly is viewed as one of the world’s ‘emerging’ donors along with nations such as India and Brazil, joining more traditional donors such as Japan in helping some of the world’s poorer regions.
In Shanghai Friday she was scheduled to deliver a speech on to the Shanghai Institute for International Studies on Sino-Japanese relations and Asia in an era of globalization.

She will return to Tokyo September 4.