President Mahama to meet Japanese Prime Minister

Isaac Yeboah Asia May - 31 - 2013 , 17:45

President Mahama and Prime Minister Abe with Foreign Minister Hanna Tetteh and Ghana's Ambassador to Japan Kofi Deh. President John Mahama has arrived in the Japanese City of Yokohama and is expected to hold bilateral talks with the Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzō Abe, later on Friday.
The meeting will focus on Ghana-Japan relations and a review of Japan's support for Ghana's development programmes through JICA.

Mr. Mahama and his wife, Lordina, are in Japan for the 5th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD). A number of other African leaders including Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn and the President of Burkina Faso Blaise Campoare have also arrived for the Conference.

The conference will officially open on Saturday, June 1, and is bringing together a number of African leaders as Japan promotes dialogue and mobilises support for Africa's development initiatives.

Launched in 1993, TICAD has evolved into a major global framework for the facilitation of initiatives promoting African development under the "dual principle of African ownership and international partnership".

While in Japan, President Mahama will meet with all former Japanese diplomats who served in Ghana, the President of JICA and host a number of business executives with interest in the Ghanaian economy.

First Lady Lordina Mahama will also participate in a symposium on HIV & AIDS, hold meetings on maternal mortality and join the wife of the Japanese Prime Minister for a working lunch.

Accompanying the President are the Minister for Finance Seth Terkper, Foreign Minister Hanna S. Tetteh, Deputy Information Minister Felix Kwakye Ofosu and the Director General of the Ghana AIDS Commission Dr. Angela El-Adas.