TANAKA Akihiko

From left, JICA President Akihiko Tanaka and Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

JICA President Akihiko Tanaka held talks in Tokyo with Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf on Aug. 28.

Tanaka began by expressing respect to President Sirleaf for her leadership on measures to respond to and recover from the Ebola epidemic. He then talked about JICA’s effort to quickly restart two grant aid projects suspended during the epidemic: The Project for Reconstruction of Somalia Drive in Monrovia and The Project for Rehabilitation of Monrovia Power System.

Sirleaf said Somalia Drive is an important trunk road for inland logistics networks and expressed hope for its early completion. She also said a lack of qualified health workers, such as doctors and nurses, is a problem and that Liberia would like to request assistance on human resource development through training programs.

Tanaka said strengthening the health care system and infrastructure (particularly roads) is an important issue and JICA would like to consider the president's requests. He also thanked the president for Liberia's excellent maintenance of equipment for The Project for Reconstruction of Somalia Drive in Monrovia, which was forced to be suspended due to the Ebola epidemic.

Finally, Tanaka concluded the talks by expressing his appreciation to the president for the strong support extended toward JICA's Liberia field office.