Toyohisa Kozuki said private organizations have formed more than 200 projects
Russia and Japan continue economic cooperation under the eight-point plan proposed by former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in May 2016. Japanese Ambassador to Russia Toyohisa Kozuki told TASS on Sunday ahead of a trip to the anniversary of the founding of Orenburg State University.
“Japan-Russia economic cooperation is developing under an eight-point cooperation plan, which was presented by the Japanese side in 2016, in a wide range of areas, including medicine, urban environment, small and medium-sized business, energy, industrial diversification and productivity enhancement, the Far East, advanced technology and humanitarian exchanges. At the same time, more than 200 projects have been formed by private organisations so far,” the ambassador said.
Kozuki noted that the two sides are discussing the current state and further prospects for cooperation in the field of economic relations and exchanges. The platforms for this in December 2020 were meetings of the sub-commissions on trade and investment and on inter-regional cooperation of the two countries’ intergovernmental commission on trade and economic issues, which were held through videoconference.
“Both sides welcomed the steady progress of cooperation between Japan and Russia with the use of online conferences under the impact of a new type of coronavirus, and reached a consensus on cooperation to further strengthen economic relations and develop interregional exchanges,” the diplomat confirmed.
In recent years, the eight-point plan proposed by Shinzo Abe in May 2016 has been the basis for developing economic cooperation between Japan and Russia. The document implies strengthening relations in the energy sector, small and medium-sized businesses, industrialisation of the Far East and expansion of the export base. It also includes a proposal to strengthen cooperation in the field of advanced technologies, including nuclear energy, as well as in humanitarian exchanges.