Press Conference, 1 December 2006

Visit to Japan of Minister for Foreign Affairs Valgerdour Sverrisdottir of the Republic of Iceland
Visit to Japan of Vice-Chairman of the Council for the Russian Federation Svetlana Orlova
Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Takeshi Iwaya to Attend the 14th Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Ministerial Council
Japanese Observers in the Presidential Election in the Republic of Madagascar
Official Development Assistance (ODA) to the Republic of the Sudan, the Republic of Guinea, the Republic of Rwanda, and the Republic of Honduras
Speech by Minister for Foreign Affairs Taro Aso available on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Website
Questions concerning the Trilateral Meeting among Japan, the People's Republic of China and Republic of Korea (ROK)
Questions concerning the North Korea Issues and the Six-Party Talks
Questions concerning Ministry of Foreign Affairs Oversight of ODA Projects

I. Visit to Japan of Minister for Foreign Affairs Valgerdour Sverrisdottir of the Republic of Iceland

Deputy Press Secretary Tomohiko Taniguchi: Good afternoon. First, from the Republic of Iceland, Minister for Foreign Affairs Valgerdour Sverrisdottir will be visiting Japan from 5-9 December to attend such events as the one commemorating the 50th anniversary of the start of bilateral diplomatic relations between Japan and Iceland.

Mrs. Sverrisdottir took up the role as the Icelandic Foreign Minister on 15 June this year, so this will be her first visit to Japan as Foreign Minister. Prior to that, she has been both Minister of Nordic Cooperation and Minister of Industry and Commerce.

During her four-day stay, she is slated to meet Minister for Foreign Affairs Taro Aso.

II. Visit to Japan by Vice-Chairman of the Council for the Russian Federation Svetlana Orlova

Mr. Taniguchi: Second, Vice-Chairman of the Council Svetlana Orlova of the Russian Federation will be visiting Japan from 4-9 December as part of the parliamentary member exchanges. Three other members of the Russian Parliament will be accompanying her.

III. Senior Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Takeshi Iwaya to Attend the 14th Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Ministerial Council

Mr. Taniguchi: Third, Senior Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Takeshi Iwaya will be attending the 14th Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Ministerial Council scheduled on 4-5 December in Brussels, the Kingdom of Belgium.

The OSCE now comprises 56 states from Europe, Central Asia, and North America, plus six Mediterranean partners for cooperation and five Asian partners for cooperation that constitute Japan, Republic of Korea (ROK), the Kingdom of Thailand, the Republic of Afghanistan, and Mongolia, in the order of history of involvement.

Its Chairman, Mr. Karel de Gucht, said on 9 October that he was deeply concerned about global security following the alleged test of nuclear weapons by North Korea, saying that he condemned the provocative act and that the country should immediately abandon its nuclear weapons program. The Government of Japan has been appreciative of those remarks and the European organization's widened interest in issues in the Asian region.

Related Information (Press Release)

IV. Japanese Observers in the Presidential Election in the Republic of Madagascar

Mr. Taniguchi: Fourth, the Republic of Madagascar is holding a presidential election on 3 December. In order to observe the election, the Government of Japan will be dispatching three members of the Antananarivo-based Japanese Embassy at the request of the Government of Madagascar.

V. Official Development Assistance (ODA) to the Republic of the Sudan, the Republic of Guinea, the Republic of Rwanda, and the Republic of Honduras

Mr. Taniguchi: The rest concerns Japan's latest official development assistance (ODA). To begin with, the Government of Japan has decided to extend an emergency grant aid totaling about US$30 million to the Republic of the Sudan to contribute to improving the humanitarian situation and supporting the consolidation of peace of the country.

Related Information (Press Release)

Similarly, a grant aid of up to a total of 405 million yen will be extended to the Republic of Guinea for a project to expand the small fishing port of Boulbinet, a sector-program grant aid of 800 million yen to Rwanda, and a grant aid of up to 20 million yen to Honduras for general projects.

VI. Speech by Minister for Foreign Affairs Taro Aso available on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Website

Mr. Taniguchi: Lastly, Minister for Foreign Affairs Taro Aso's speech which he delivered yesterday, with the title "Arc of Freedom and Prosperity: Japan's Expanding Diplomatic Horizons" is already available on the Ministry's website.

VII. Questions concerning the Trilateral Meeting among Japan, the People's Republic of China and Republic of Korea (ROK)

Q: The first trilateral talks in two years involving Japan, the People's Republic of China, the ROK will take place in a little more than a week, and I am just wondering, what are the expectations out of that? Will it mainly focus on the North Korea crisis, or do you expect progress in other issues from that meeting?

Mr. Taniguchi: That is basically to discuss economic issues. The ROK Government and the Japanese Government have been interested in forging advanced investment treaties among each other, and with the Chinese Government, and they are going to pay attention to that aspect, and certainly they are going to discuss economic issues to a large extent, but I would not be surprised if they are going to talk also about regional affairs, including North Korea issues.

VIII. Questions concerning the North Korea Issues and the Six-Party Talks

Q: I understand, speaking of North Korea, that the Minister for Foreign Affairs today was asked about whether further, tougher sanctions are possible, and he seemed to intimate that that was the case, pointing out that there are hardliners in the US Government that are pushing for further sanctions. Was that meant as a warning? How should we interpret what he said today?

Mr. Taniguchi: He gave that remark to the members of the Japanese press corps merely as a general description of the range of attitudes that he can observe within the Department of State of the United States, and he also warned the North Korean Government that if they take a longer time, chances are that they are going to have to face with other, still more heightened sanctions by the US Government. But the connotation of course, as I understand it, is that if that happens, the Government of Japan might take a similar set of actions together with the US.

Q: There seems to be a climate that, although it is still not yet sure, the Six-Party Talks may not probably be held this year. In case they are held next year or early next year, would the Ministry of Foreign Affairs say that any momentum would be lost in terms of the Six-Party Talks?

Mr. Taniguchi: We should not lose the momentum. That is the answer to your question. As I have said repeatedly before, holding the Six-Party Talks remains important, but what is far more important is to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula and convince North Korea of the importance of going non-nuclear and complying with the international regime, and to prove this in an irreversible and verifiable fashion. That is what is most important. We cannot, and by we I mean the international community and the members of the Six-Party Talks framework, cannot lose the steam or momentum, we simply cannot.

Q: Following up on that, do you have any further details than what has already been reported about the discussion that Director-General of the Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau Kenichiro Sasae of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill had at Narita yesterday? Mr. Sasae was not involved in the discussion in Beijing this week with the North Koreans.

Mr. Taniguchi: They just reviewed the situation and shared a common understanding that the ball is in the court of North Korea, and that the other members of the Six-Party Talks still have to form a united front against North Korea and continue to stress to them the importance of going non-nuclear and proving to the international community that they are going to denuclearize in a verifiable fashion. I have been saying exactly the same thing, but that is obviously what Mr. Sasae and Mr. Hill once again reconfirmed at Narita Airport.

IX. Questions concerning Ministry of Foreign Affairs Oversight of ODA Projects

Q: On a different topic, Madam Sadako Ogata, the President of the Japan International Cooperation Association (JICA) this afternoon held a news conference concerning her agency and the direction of Japanese ODA. In specific, I would like to ask about how in September the Board of Audit advised the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as I understand it to do a better job of monitoring ODA projects. This came in response to the revelation that Pacific Consultants International (PCI), a major consulting firm, had embezzled about 140 million yen by padding expenses, creating fake invoices, etc. DO you have any information on what the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has actually done since that recommendation was made?

Mr. Taniguchi: As you just pointed out, the involved agency is a consulting agency called PCI, and it was revealed that between fiscal 2000 and fiscal 2004, JICA and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) gave contracts to this company, which then made subcontracts to the companies in the regions that this consultancy was assigned to do business in. There was an amount of money counted as paid to PCI in a fraudulent fashion, and that amount of money has already been paid back to JICA and JBIC. As far as the money paid back already to JICA is concerned, the amount totaled 171 million yen, which is not a small amount of money. To JBIC, the total amount paid back by PCI was 5.7 million yen.

It is certainly the case that the Board of Audit made a warning to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the Ministry has to take far greater care of the details of the contracts so that never again will this sort of fraudulent activity be conducted by contractors such as PCI. We have conducted a review of the way in which Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been doing business with such organizations as PCI, and come up with a bunch of proposals such as that when JICA gives a contract to the subcontractor such as PCI, when it comes to the bigger cases in which the money exceeds a certain amount, JICA has to send officials to the site where the contract is taking place, or JICA should check themselves with the subcontractor in question so that JICA people can see for themselves what the subcontract looks like, or to use the agencies in the nations that the subcontractors are doing business in to do checkings with the subcontractors.

Those are the items that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs together with JICA has looked at, and I understand that JICA will take elaborate care of how they do business. Please note that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not the prime contractor in cases such as this; JICA is doing the business itself, and so JICA has to take the primary care of how the contracts are being done, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' responsibility is to supervise in good faith the way in which JICA is doing its businesses and JICA is contracting with the subcontractors, and so on.

Q: If I could follow op, obviously the Board of Audit felt that the Ministry has some sort of responsibility if it issued the warning, and I understand that JICA has suspended PCI from the list of companies allowed to big for projects for 18 months, but there will not be any further penalties. Are you aware of what other business PCI is conducting with the Ministry or with the Government of Japan at this point?

Mr. Taniguchi: As you correctly pointed out, after the suspension period that lasted 18 months, PCI started its businesses again with JICA, and I understand that since the lifting of the suspension, which continued for 18 months between September 2004 and March 2006, and since the suspension ended, since it was lifted, PCI has gotten new contracts, the number of which has been 15, and the amount of money involved has been 550 million yen. That is what is going on between PCI and JICA. As far as what is going on between PCI and JBIC is concerned, PCI has gotten three contracts amounting to 125 million yen. That is what I know. I am not sure what sort of contracts PCI is doing with JICA and JBIC in a detailed fashion, but I believe that since PCI had to endure the severest punishment ever given by JICA and JBIC, they are doing their businesses in good faith.

Related Information (Japan's ODA)

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