TANAKA Akihiko

JICA Senior Vice-President Hideaki Domichi held talks with visiting Maldives President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom in Tokyo on April 16.

Senior Vice-President Domichi mentioned that six of the current Maldivian cabinet ministers were ex-participants of JICA training and said he was happy that JICA was able to contribute to the development of the Maldives through training. He also said that because the Maldives decided to adopt Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting-Terrestrial (ISDB-T), a Japanese standard for digital terrestrial broadcasting system, Japan would dispatch a survey mission for the purpose of identifying possible avenues to assist introduction of the system in the Maldives, and that preparations are underway to cooperate with formulation of a master plan to promote a sustainable fishing industry, given that the fishing industry is second only to tourism for the Maldives.

President Yameen said that Japan is a very important partner for the Maldives, so he hopes for Japan’s continued assistance in areas including climate change, disaster prevention and the environment. He also touched on the fact that the Maldives are promoting the private sector to participate in infrastructure development, based on the fact that the country has made the transition to being an upper-middle income country*, and he said he would welcome possible support from Japan for this initiative.


*The Maldives transitioned from being a lower-income country to being an upper-middle income country in 2011.