 |
| Prime Minister of Japan, His Excellency Junichiro Koizumi |
BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, OCTOBER 17TH 2005 Strengthening bi-lateral relations between the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis and the Kingdom of Japan will be discussed in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Issues pertaining to security, the funding of economic development projects, grants, foreign aid and mutual foreign policy agenda including United Nation's Reform and Japan's bid for a UN Security Council seat, will dominate discussions between St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister, Dr. the Hon. Denzil L. Douglas and his Japanese counterpart, His Excellency Junichiro Koizumi, at the Prime Minister's Official Residence Tuesday morning (Monday night local time).
Prime Minister Douglas is accompanied by Minister of Housing, Agriculture, Fisheries and Consumer Affairs, the Hon. Cedric Liburd and Chief Secretary, Mr. Joseph Edmeade.
During the nine-day Official Visit, Dr. Douglas and his delegation will also meet with Japan's Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, His Excellency, Mineichi Iwanaga; the Director General of the Fisheries Agency, Mr. Y. Kobayashi; the Vice President of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA); Mr. E. Kitahara and Members of Parliament of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
Visits will also be made to the Tokyo central wholesale market, a plum juice factory and the tuna aqua-culture institute of Kinki University in Tokyo and the major cities of Osaka and Kyoto.
 |
| St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Dr. the Hon. Denzil L. Douglas (c) and Chief Secretary, Mr. Joseph Edmeade (l) discuss the visit to Tokyo with Japan's Ambassador to St. Kitts and Nevis, His Excellency, Shigenobu Kato. |
At a news conference prior to his departure, Prime Minister Douglas said a request will be made for Japanese assistance in the development of an information technology park, national security equipment for the police and defence force and disaster management.
We shall be making specific requests for financial assistance for the construction of new police stations and the refurbishment of existing facilities on both St. Kitts and on Nevis, said Prime Minister Douglas.
He said government lacks the required financing to build new or refurbish existing police stations in Sandy Point, Tabernacle, Stapleton, St. Paul's and Dieppe Bay on St. Kitts and at least two police stations on Nevis.
We are of the view that is part of effective security at the national level and we have to ensure that the environment in which our law enforcement officers are working is conductive to their work, said Prime Minister Douglas.
In the area of economic development, we speak of an information technology park in Conaree. Some initial work has been done but we have not been able to raise all of the required financing with the assistance of the Caribbean Development Bank, which was the lending institution to which we were working and so we want to see if we can speed up that project and I will have some discussions with my Japanese counterpart in this regard, Prime Minister Douglas told reporters.
He said the necessary work continues for the start of construction of the fisheries terminal in Old Road. Similar facilities are to be constructed in Dieppe Bay and Sandy Point on St. Kitts and also on Nevis.
