Japan will further promote the Japan-Bangladesh Comprehensive Partnership and continue to fully support Bangladesh’s development on all fronts so that the country can attain the status of a middle-income country by 2021, said Senior Deputy Minister of Japanese Foreign Ministry Kazuyuki Yamazaki at 2nd Bangladesh-Japan Foreign Office Consultation held at Tokyo today. The First FOC was held in Dhaka on February 2015. Foreign Secretary of Bangladesh Shahidul Haque is leading a 10 member delegation to Japan for the Foreign Secretary level dialogue. Ambassador of Bangladesh to Japan, Ms. Rabab Fatima, and representatives from other Ministries were also present during the discussion.
The FOC reviewed the entire gamut of bilateral relations and took stock of implementation status of decisions taken in the past at different levels of the two governments. Consensus was reached to strengthen economic and commercial relations, and to explore new areas of cooperation.
The Foreign Secretary expressed hope that Bay of Bengal Industrial Growth Belt (Big-B) Initiative will accelerate cooperation for development of quality infrastructure and the investment environment in Bangladesh and will strengthen regional connectivity. He requested Japan’s support to set up skills and Japanese language training center in Bangladesh to train potential Bangladeshi workers for recruitment in highly skilled and less skilled sectors under Japan’s newly adoptedimmigration law. Shahidul Haque requested Japan to foster greater friendship and people-to-people exchanges between two countries. Defining Bangladesh’s plan to develop inclusive and people centric blue economy, he requested Japanese assistance and collaboration in deep sea fishing and ocean resource mapping.
Kazuyuki Yamazaki highly commended Bangladesh’s humanitarian support to the displaced Myanmar nationals and reiterated Japan’s continued support for the safe and voluntary return and resettlement of the Myanmar nationals.
On the sideline of FOC, Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque paid a courtesy call on State Minister of Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan Ichiro Tsukada at his office and discussed issues of mutual interest. Mr. Tsukada is also Secretary General of Bangladesh-Japan Parliamentary Friendship (JBPFL) which works to enhance and strengthen cooperation between parliamentarians of the two countries. Shahidul Haque also met Assistant Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobukatsu Kanehara at Prime Minister’s Office and discussed bilateral, regional and strategic issues.