Africa
Meeting between Mr. Sato, State Minister for Foreign Affairs and Ms. Kapwepwe, Secretary General of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa
August 29, 2019
On August 29, for about 20 minutes, from 2:35 p.m., in Yokohama, Mr. Masahisa Sato, State Minister for Foreign Affairs, held a meeting with H.E. Ms. Chileshe Kapwepwe, Secretary General of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). The overview of the meeting is as follows. Secretary General Kapwepwe is visiting Japan to participate in the Seventh Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD7) held from August 28 to 30.
- At the outset, State Minister Sato stated, “Japan welcomes the Secretary General’s visit to Japan. We would like to make the seventh TICAD successful together with Secretary General Kapwepwe and further strengthen ties between Japan and COMESA.”
- Following that, State Minister Sato stated that Regional Economic Communities like COMESA is important for Japanese companies to expand their businesses, and expressed that Japan would like to strengthen cooperation with COMESA centered on promoting economic structural transformation and improving business environment through innovation and private sector involvement, which are the achievements of TICAD7. In response, Secretary General Kapwepwe expressed appreciation to Japan’s assistance and her hopes for increasing private investment and technology transfer from Japan to COMESA member countries.