TANAKA Akihiko

From right, Mongolian Prime Minister Norovyn Altankhuyag and JICA President Akihiko Tanaka

JICA President Akihiko Tanaka visited Mongolia April 14-17 and held talks with key figures including Mongolian Prime Minister Norovyn Altankhuyag, gave a lecture at National University of Mongolia and visited the sites of ODA projects.

In talks with Altankhuyag, regarding the Mid-term action plan between Japan and Mongolia for strategic partnership agreed upon by the prime ministers of Japan and Mongolia last September, Tanaka confirmed that many cooperation projects, including the agreement to implement the Higher Engineering Education Development Project and phase two of the Capacity Development Project for Air Pollution Control in Ulaanbaatar City, have been moving forward in the past six months, and he announced JICA's intention to continue proactively extending its cooperation.

Prime Minister Norovyn Altankhuyag said the people of Mongolia know about Japan's assistance to Mongolia, and he expressed appreciation on their behalf and his hopes for continued cooperation.

Tanaka also met with figures including Minister of Foreign Affairs Luvsanvandan Bold, Minister of Finance Ch. Ulaan, Minister of Education and Science Luvsannyam Gantumur, Minister of Economic Development Nyamjav Batbayar, Mayor of Ulaanbaatar Erdeniin Bat-Uul and the deans of the National University of Mongolia and the Mongolian University of Science and Technology, and discussed JICA's cooperation with them.

JICA President Akihiko Tanaka, center, visits the Mongolian University of Science and Technology, where cooperation is planned in the form of the Higher Engineering Education Development Project.
JICA President Akihiko Tanaka gives a lecture at the National University of Mongolia.

At the National University of Mongolia, Tanaka gave a lecture to higher education stakeholders in Mongolia entitled "The role of higher education institutions in supporting continuous economic growth — achieving a vital Mongolia." He said that to help Mongolia avoid falling into the so-called middle-income trap and to help it achieve sustainable economic growth, human resource training is important, and for this purpose, JICA will partner with Japanese educational institutions and cooperate on the development of education and research at Mongolia's higher education institutions through the Higher Engineering Education Development Project and other relevant projects.

Tanaka also visited the construction site of New Ulaanbaatar International Airport, which is under construction with Japanese assistance, and an elementary school built with a grant aid, and by observing the activities of JICA experts and senior volunteers at the Mongolia-Japan Center for Human Resources Development and the Mongolian University of Science and Technology, he confirmed that JICA projects are proving useful for Mongolian economic development and the improvement of citizens' lives. During his stay, Tanaka met with the representatives of Japanese private companies active in Mongolia and an alumni association of participants in training and study in Japan, as well as with JICA experts and volunteers, among others, and listened to their hopes for JICA projects contributing to strengthened ties between Japan and Mongolia.