The Japanese Ambassador to the Southeast Asian country of East Timor visited the Kochi Prefectural Government and confirmed plans to continue exchanges in various fields, including agriculture.

The visitor to the prefectural office was Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Timor-Leste, Kimura Tetsuya. Last September, the prefecture accepted the first technical intern trainees from Timor-Leste, and currently 14 trainees are working hard in the fields in Tosa and Susaki. During the meeting, Ambassador Kimura mentioned that the Timor-Leste government wants to focus on developing agriculture and tourism, and explained that interest in Japan is growing. Governor Hamada, on the other hand, said, “We would like to support you as much as we can, including in agriculture, fisheries, and accepting human resources.”

(Tetsuya Kimura, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Embassy of Japan in Timor-Leste)
“Kochi Prefecture is an advanced agricultural country, so the technical intern trainees are learning vegetable and flower cultivation techniques. We would be extremely grateful if this could lead to closer cooperation in the agricultural field and for Kochi Prefecture to share its techniques with us to help develop agriculture in Timor-Leste.”

The prefecture plans to accept five new technical intern trainees from Timor-Leste in August.