2017.25.04 Meeting with USAID and UNIDO ITPO

Meeting with USAID and UNIDO ITPO

April 25, 2017: Dr. Bashir Mohabbat, Chargé d’ Affaires ad interim, Mr. Asif Agah, Second Secretary, and Ms. Namie Imanishi participated the meeting arranged by USAID Tokyo at United Nations University. Mr. John H. Seong, Senior Development Counselor of USAID, explained about the trade fair of Afghanistan, which took place in Dubai in December 2016. USAID Kabul was one of the big supporters for the event and they asked USAID Tokyo to coordinate with the Embassy to work to see if any similar event can be held in Tokyo. It is the event to promote Afghan products to the Japanese market, corporations, and people.

Dr. Mohabbat thanked the International Community, UN University, and UNIDO for their enormous support and assistance to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, mentioning that without their assistance and support Afghanistan might not have actualized all of its great progress and development over the past years.

Mr. Ferda Gelegen, Deputy Head, spoke about UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organization) ITPO (Investment and Technology Promotion Office) Tokyo Office, which was established in March 1981 based on the agreement between UNIDO and the Japanese Government as an investment promotional office. There are nine ITPO offices in the world, and the ITPO Tokyo has many experiences in bringing business missions, supporting bilateral business relations between Japan and developing countries, holding seminars, and promoting Japanese technology to developing countries with a help from the METI, for instance.

Mr. Seong mentioned the importance of having an appropriate partner/contractor to events such as trade fairs to handle logical issues, advertisement, setup venues, etc. Mr. Gelegen mentioned that JETRO was their partner on some occasions. He also mentioned the possibility of holding smaller seminars in the interim to promote Afghan products as an initial step towards larger fairs in the future, with ITPO Tokyo experienced in holding seminars and able to help the Embassy.

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