President Commends Japanese Ambassador

President Kufuor has commended the outgoing Japanese Ambassador, Hiroma Nitta, for efforts he made to consolidate bilateral relations between his country and Ghana during his two-year duty tour. He said Mr Nitta made a positive impact on the socio-economic development of the country and played a tremendous role when Ghana opted for the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative in March last year.

"Japan is against the granting of credits to countries that opt for the HIPC Initiative but for the first time Japan considered Ghana and converted all credits into grants. This marked the depth of friendship between both countries," he said. Mr Nitta who leaves Ghana on Wednesday after ending his duty tour called on the President today to bid him farewell.

President Kufuor said Ghana has received many donor and development support in various fields of endeavour from Japan and urged Mr Nitta to continue to be an advocate for Ghana(quote)s socio-economic development efforts.

Mr Nitta for his part said although his stay in Ghana was short, there was substantial improvement in the relations between both countries. He said Japan had a very good reputation in Ghana because of the establishment of the Noguchi Memorial Institute in Accra.