President thanks Japan for support |04 August 2015

President James Michel has thanked Japan for its support in the fight against piracy as well as fisheries development in Seychelles and the region.

The Seychellois head of state expressed his gratitude to the Japanese government through its State Minister for Foreign Affairs, Minoru Kiuchi, whom he received at State House yesterday morning.

“Seychelles and Japan have a strong affinity as island nations, and we have an active partnership which covers a wide spectrum of areas including fisheries, renewable energy and climate change mitigation, capacity building, and maritime security cooperation. We will increase our efforts to develop more tourism and aviation partnerships as well as extend the areas of our existing projects of renewable energy development. Our policy is to democratise the access of renewable energy for all Seychellois, and Japan’s assistance and expertise will be welcomed to achieve this aim,” President Michel said in a communiqué issued by State House.

President Michel and Mr Kiuchi spoke about the extension of the Providence Fishing Port, which forms part of a Seychelles request for a 7th Fisheries Grant from the Japanese government.

The President and Mr Kiuchi discussed the new incentives that have been introduced in Seychelles for importation of electric and hybrid cars, and the possibilities of greater trade in Japanese cars as a result of this.

They also spoke about the climate change challenges of Small Island Developing States, especially coastal erosion as well as the projects that could be developed to prevent the erosion taking place.

Furthermore, next year’s Tokyo International Conference on African Development which will be taking place in Nairobi, was a subject of discussion. President Michel attended the conference in Yokohama in 2013.

In an interview with local media, State Minister Kiuchi said that cooperation between Seychelles and Japan is set to increase after the visit of this high-level delegation.

“Seychelles and Japan are both maritime nations and we have much in common, we share common values; liberty, democracy, the rule of law and the fundamental human rights….We both agreed to continue our cooperation in areas such as maritime safety including counter-piracy measures and also fisheries and disaster risk reduction,” Mr Kiuchi said.

Present during the meeting with President Michel were the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Transport, Joel Morgan; the President’s diplomatic adviser, Ambassador Callixte d’Offay; the Chargé d’Affaires of the Japanese embassy in Nairobi, Mikio Mori and senior deputy director, First African Division, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, Kiyohiko Ikeda.

Mr Kiuchi and his delegation also paid a courtesy call on Vice-President Danny Faure.