UNCTAD Secretary-General Rubens Ricupero will make an official visit to Japan from 23 to 27 November at the invitation of the Japanese government to build on the long-standing cooperation between that country and UNCTAD.
Mr. Ricupero has set three priorities for his visit: to discuss ways for Japan to expand its involvement in UNCTAD´s work on the least developed countries (LDCs), and particularly those in Africa, which are of special concern to Japan; to pursue cooperation in other areas of common interest, such as investment; and to discuss the potential for further cooperation in capacity-building, particularly in the low-income Asian countries - an area where UNCTAD has acquired considerable experience. Another objective of the visit is to explore opportunities for joint assistance to developing countries in ongoing multilateral trade negotiations.
On Monday morning, 25 November, Mr. Ricupero will pay a courtesy call in Tokyo on Yoriko Kawaguchi, Minister of Foreign Affairs. He will then attend a luncheon hosted by the Japan International Cooperation Agency, where discussions will focus on possibilities for future collaboration. That afternoon and throughout the next day, he will meet with high-level officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
On Tuesday afternoon, 26 November, Mr. Ricupero will meet with the Rector of the United Nations University (UNU), where he will then deliver a lecture on "How can the impoverishment of the poorest countries be stopped?". UNU and UNCTAD collaborated on a 1997 publication entitled The new globalism and developing countries and, this year, on a book called Trade, Environment and the Millennium.
The government of Japan has been a steady contributor to UNCTAD, where a number of Japanese nationals are currently working on a broad range of substantive topics and technical cooperation projects. These include assistance to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Asia and the Pacific, through UNCTAD´s Trade Point Programme; an analysis of East Asian development experiences and their applicability to Africa; helping small island developing countries to develop strategies for the multilateral negotiations on agriculture; and technical cooperation to facilitate the use of the Generalized System of Preferences. The government of Japan contributes $250,000 per annum to the latter project.
Other Japanese staff members at UNCTAD are involved in investment promotion, enterprise development, trade policy and commodity research.
This is the second visit by the UNCTAD Secretary-General to Japan. The first visit took place in 1998, when he attended the High-level Seminar on African Development.
