TANAKA Akihiko

Mongolian Prime Minister Norov Altankhuyag, left, with JICA President Akihiko Tanaka

JICA President Akihiko Tanaka on Sept. 12 held talks with Mongolian Prime Minister Norov Altankhuyag in Tokyo.

At the beginning of the talks, Tanaka welcomed Altankhuyag to Japan and said JICA would like to work on implementing the ERCH Initiative suggested in March when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Mongolia and to which Prime Minister Altankhuyag has already given his endorsement.

He also said JICA would like to provide cooperation based on JICA priority areas in accordance with Japan’s country assistance policy for Mongolia, while making good use of the results of cooperation from the 1990s. Tanaka also said JICA, as a partner of Mongolia, would like to proactively provide cooperation that benefits the people of Mongolia through the sustainable growth of the country, from a medium- to long-term viewpoint.

In response, Altankhuyag expressed gratitude to Japan for its cooperation since the democratization of Mongolia and transition to a market economy in the 1990s. He also expressed hope for Japanese cooperation for the further development of Mongolia, including Japanese ODA loans, technical cooperation and the active use of various study schemes of JICA, and said he would like to engage in active exchanges of opinions with JICA.

Japan is Mongolia's top partner with regard to development assistance. JICA will continue to mobilize a wide variety of schemes to proactively carry out cooperation for the sustainable socioeconomic development of Mongolia.