ICARDA News

INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH IN THE DRY AREAS
P.O. Box 5466, Aleppo, Syria
Phone: (963-21) 2213433, 2213477, 2225112, 2225012
Fax: (963-21) 2213490, 2225105; E-mail: ICARDA@CGIAR.ORG
23 January 2003
For more information contact:S.Varma@cgiar.org
New Japanese Ambassador to Syria Visits ICARDA
His Excellency Mr Azusa Hayashi, Ambassador of Japan in the Syrian Arab Republic, visited ICARDA on 21 January 2003. He was accompanied by his wife Mrs Hayashi; Mr Seizo Matsura, First Secretary, Economic and Technical Cooperation; Mr Kazuhide Nagasawa, Resident Representative of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in Syria, and Mr Naoki Takechi, Project Formulation Advisor, JICA.
    Welcoming His Excellency the Ambassador and his delegation, Prof. Dr Adel El-Beltagy, Director General, expressed ICARDA’s appreciation to the Ambassador for visiting the Center soon after taking his responsibility in Syria. This was a reflection of the high importance given by him and the Government of Japan to the mission and mandate of ICARDA to serve the rural poor in the dry areas of Central and West Asia and North Africa, the DG said. The DG explained that ICARDA seeks to fulfill its mission and mandate through research and technology transfer and human-resource capacity building for sustainable agriculture and management of the natural resources of land, water and biodiversity. He highlighted the geographical coverage of ICARDA’s activities, its achievements in the past, and future directions. He stressed the importance of collaboration with Japan, and expressed ICARDA’s gratefulness for support from Japan, and discussed the prospects for strengthening the collaboration in future.
His Excellency Mr Azusa Hayashi (right), Ambassador of Japan in the Syrian Arab Republic, his wife Mrs Hayashi, along with the members of his delegation, met Prof. Dr Adel El-Beltagy, Director General, and Dr M.C. Saxena, Assistant Director General (At-Large), to discuss the ongoing and future collaboration between ICARDA and Japan.
The Japanese Ambassador to Syria and members of his delegation with ICARDA senior management and Japanese scientists
    The Ambassador greatly appreciated ICARDA’s efforts, with which he appeared quite familiar, based on briefings provided to him by the former Ambassador of Japan in Syria, H.E. Mr Kishichiro Amae, and briefings by Dr Giro Orita and Dr Shinabee Inanaga (ICARDA Board Member from Japan), who are both quite conversant with the CGIAR system and its role in alleviating poverty and hunger in the developing world. His Excellency the Ambassador said he attached high importance to overseas development aid to agricultural research and development, as agriculture is the key to prosperity and peace in the developing world.
    The Ambassador expressed great concern about the increasing scarcity of water in the region and expressed satisfaction at the high priority given by ICARDA to an integrated approach to enhancing water-use efficiency and water conservation. He was pleased to know that ICARDA would be participating in the deliberations of the World Water Forum in March 2003 in Koyoto, Japan and also organizing a major, one-day symposium on “Sustainable Management of Scarce Water Resources in the Dry Areas” on 19 March.
    The Ambassador was briefed by Prof. El-Beltagy on the work done so far in rehabilitating agriculture in Afghanistan. The strategy adopted by the Future Harvest Consortium to Rebuild Agriculture in Afghanistan, which is led by ICARDA, was appreciated by the Ambassador. He said that the proposal sent by ICARDA for seeking Japan’s support for some of the rehabilitation activities had moved forward.
    The Ambassador had a working lunch with the Japanese scientists working at ICARDA and ICARDA senior management, who gave some more details of work being done at ICARDA with support from Japan.
    Promising to revisit ICARDA, the Ambassador thanked the Director General and ICARDA scientists for arranging a useful and informative program of visit, before leaving for his next official engagement in Aleppo. Prof. Dr Adel El-Beltagy thanked the Ambassador and Mrs Hayashi and members of the delegation for their visit.

ICARDA's (www.icarda.org) mission is to improve the welfare of people and alleviate poverty through research and training in dry areas of the developing world by increasing production, productivity, and nutritional quality of food, while preserving and enhancing the natural resource base. ICARDA is a Future Harvest Center.
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