Staff Reporter
STRENGTHENING business relations between Japan and Namibia will be one of the main priorities of the Embassy of Japan in Namibia, according to outgoing Ambassador Hideaki Harada.
“We need more Japanese business communities and exposure and more engagement with Namibia. I have already talked to my successor that business relation – business to business intercourse – is much more important to further the countries’ relationship,” Harada said during his farewell visit with President Hage Geingob on Monday.
According to the ambassador, investment and trade promotion is important for the future and development of both countries. This will therefore be one of the embassy’s key objectives going forward.
However, it is not just the future that holds the potential for development, the ambassador also noted that Japan has contributed to several other developments in the country during his term, which started in 2018.
Japan made many contributions to Namibia ranging from food donations to support the agricultural projects to supporting access to vaccination in the country.
However, Harada prides himself most on the contributions that were made to the education sector, stating that it is the embassy’s “biggest success”.
Harada said that Japan supported 60 primary schools in the country, and 30 of these schools were constructed during his term.
Besides this, several Japanese volunteer teachers assisted the country by offering mathematics, physics, chemistry and computer programming classes to learners at various schools across the country.
In addition, Japan also extends an invitation to 20 to 25 Namibian nationals to study in Japan and offers six scholarships annually to those who want to study in Japan.
“Education, in other words human resource development to some extent, I should say we contributed. I try to do my best,” Harada added.
President Geingob thanked the government and the people of Japan for their assistance to Namibia, especially during the Covid-19 Pandemic.
