TANAKA Akihiko

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, right, and JICA President Akihiko Tanaka shake hands.

JICA President Akihiko Tanaka visited Uganda from Jan. 25 to 29, attending a groundbreaking ceremony for the New Nile Bridge with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and visiting the sites of other JICA projects in the country.

On Jan. 28, Tanaka participated in the New Nile Bridge groundbreaking ceremony. The project site is 80 kilometers east of Kampala, the capital of Uganda. The bridge is intended to eliminate a bottleneck in the Northern Corridor, an important transportation route for the country. JICA concluded the Japanese ODA loan agreement for the project in November 2010. Because it is a highly valued national project for Uganda, approximately 1,000 people attended the groundbreaking ceremony, including President Museveni, Minister of Transportation and Works James Abraham Byandaala, Japanese Ambassador Junzo Fujita and representatives of the Japanese companies contracted to perform the construction work. President Museveni expressed his gratitude for this project and other projects Japan has cooperated with.

Tatsushi Tsuboi, a JICA expert working on the Promotion of Rice Development Project, explains experiments and research on rice.

Earlier in the week, on Jan. 26, Tanaka visited the Rice Research and Training Center, built under grant aid based on the initiative Coalition for African Rice Development, agreed on at the fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development. He also checked on the status of rice in Uganda and on the results of past JICA cooperation, observing the ongoing technical cooperation Promotion of Rice Development Project, visiting Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV) activities on site and holding discussions with Ugandans involved in the project.

On Jan. 27, Tanaka visited the Pabo Sub-County Office in Amuru District. The office was one of the targets of the urgent development survey Project for Community Development for Promoting Return and Resettlement of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), carried out based on the Reconstruction Assistance Programme in Northern Uganda, and it also is a target of the ongoing technical cooperation Project for Capacity Development in Planning and Implementation of Community Development in Acholi Sub-Region. There, Tanaka confirmed the results of cooperation so far while exchanging opinions with Ugandan stakeholders.

Tanaka also visited Kulu Opal Primary School, one site of the ongoing, grant-based conflict-prevention and peace-building Project for Building Community for Promoting Return and Resettlement of IDPs in Acholi Sub-region, and while checking the progress of construction, listened to an explanation from the village leader of the water supply situation and other topics.

On Jan. 29, Tanaka visited Nakawa Vocational Training Institute, which Japan has been assisting for more than 40 years since 1968, through grant aid and technical cooperation. Japan has assisted Nakawa Vocational Training Institute through curriculum development, instructor training and the provision of training equipment. Today, as the training institute providing the highest quality technical training and practice in Uganda, the school is getting high marks from private enterprise, and the employment rate of graduates is over 80 percent. Minister of Education and Sports Jessica Alupo, who visited the institute along with Tanaka, expressed appreciation for Japan's longstanding assistance in training human resources and emphasized the importance of continuing Japanese knowledge sharing and assistance.

Next Tanaka visited Entebbe General Hospital to see the Japanese quality control methods 5S (Sort, Set, Shine, Standardize and Sustain) and Kaizen, total quality management, which is being used to improve the work environment in the hospital. He also checked on the introduction of alcohol hand disinfectant by Saraya Co., Ltd., as part of JICA’s cooperation on the Base of Pyramid (BoP) Business Promotion Survey. And he checked on the activities of the JOCV.

During his stay in Uganda, Tanaka also visited Bujagali Power Station and other related projects for infrastructure development, Uganda Wildlife Education Centre, where JOCV projects and grass-roots technical cooperation are underway, and other locations.