Foreign Affairs State Minister Henry Okello Oryem has hailed Japan for its strong ties with Uganda for a number of years.
“It is my pleasure and honor, to extend our appreciation to the government and people of Japan for their continued commitment in development across the global especially in Africa,”Oryem said.
“In 2001, the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV) began coming to Uganda. Since then, over 760 volunteers have worked together with local communities, building trust and friendships for the social-economic development of Uganda.”
Oryem was on Thursday speaking during a function to receive Japanese oversees volunteers held at Hotel Africana in Kampala.
The Foreign Affairs minister said in the past 21 year of JOCV to Uganda, there have been several success stories witnessed including construction of schools and water boreholes as well as teaching of baseball to young boys and girls.
“These activities carried out by individual volunteers are much smaller in scale than those implemented by large development cooperation programs. However, they have an undeniable long-term impact on the lives they touch. These volunteers and their activities are therefore greatly commended.”
He noted that the closer and excellent cooperation between the two countries will continue but asked the Japanese government to work with Uganda to implement the Parish Development Model program which is a strategy and a vehicle for organizing and delivering public and private sector interventions for wealth creation and employment generation at the parish level.
“I invite your government through the Japanese International Cooperation Agency to explore working with Uganda as we undertake this journey in the areas of agriculture whole value chain development and tourism among others,”Oryem urged.
