TANAKA Akihiko

Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang, right, and JICA President Akihiko Tanaka met in Tokyo on March 18.

JICA President Akihiko Tanaka held talks March 18 in Tokyo with President Truong Tan Sang of Viet Nam, who was in Japan as a state guest.

Sang expressed thanks for Japan's long years of cooperation toward Viet Nam, then he said there is large demand for infrastructure improvement in Viet Nam, and the North–South Expressway is an extremely important transportation foundation. Also, he expressed his intention to advance airport construction projects including Noi Bai International Airport by making effective use of private capital in addition to cooperation from JICA.

In response to this, Tanaka said that he reconfirmed the necessity of cooperation from JICA to Viet Nam in various sectors through his experience of traveling on roads from Viet Nam to Laos and Cambodia during two visits, last year and this year, and he deepened his recognition of the importance of infrastructure development in the Mekong region as a whole. Furthermore, there is a need to improve seaports for the development of the entire Mekong region, and advancing improvement of Lac Huyen international seaport in the north, and Cai Mep and Thi Vai international ports in the south, will strengthen their functionality as a gateway not just to their respective regions of Viet Nam, but to Southeast Asia as a whole, he said.

Also, when Sang said he will welcome visits to Viet Nam by Tanaka in the future and he hopes further discussions with concerned parties take place, Tanaka replied that JICA would like to consider further cooperation.

JICA will continue providing various cooperation to Viet Nam, including infrastructure improvement.