TANAKA Akihiko

On July 10, JICA President Akihiko Tanaka held talks with Sam Kahamba Kutesa, president-elect of the United Nations General Assembly, at JICA Headquarters in Tokyo.

President-Elect of the United Nations General Assembly Sam Kahamba Kutesa, left, and JICA President Akihiko Tanaka

It has been decided that Kutesa, who is the foreign minister of Uganda, will serve for one year as the 69th president of the United Nations General Assembly beginning in September.

Kutesa started out by expressing appreciation for JICA's cooperation toward Uganda in the fields of infrastructure, electric power, agriculture, health and water supply, and Tanaka said JICA will continue contributing to the development of Uganda as a good partner. Also, Tanaka said it is heartening that Kutesa, who knows a great deal about Japan's and JICA's international cooperation, will take the post of president of the General Assembly, and he said he looks forward to seeing Kutesa in action.

Kutesa said that as the next president, he will aim to achieve the current Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and that he thinks that achieving consensus among member countries regarding the Post 2015 development agenda is a priority issue. Kutesa went on to say that getting the private sector more involved in development, establishing a fair trade structure and lowering the cost of overseas remittances to developing countries are important issues. In particular, he said making private sector profit and a development effect coexist is the key to increasing the participation of the private sector in development. In response, Tanaka said there is a need to establish a better system to call private capital into development, and that with regard to this point, the public sector has a large role to play.

Tanaka also explained JICA's fundamental ideas regarding the Post 2015 development agenda, and said they have an affinity to the African Union's Common African Position on the Post-2015 Development Agenda. In response, Kutesa said he looks forward to Japan's and JICA's continued contribution to the Post 2015 development agenda and the issue of climate change.