Egypt and Japan have enjoyed a history of friendship that spans more than 150 years. There is fruitful cooperation between the two countries in many domains. The Egyptian Mail talked with the new Japanese Ambassador to Cairo, Oka Hiroshi, in his first interview to the media since presenting his credentials to President Abdel Fattah El Sisi in March.
“I am excited to return to Egypt as Ambassador of Japan 40 years after I studied the Arabic language here, true to the famous proverb which says ‘Whoever drinks from the Nile will be back to Egypt again’. I feel as if I have returned to my home country because the warm hospitality of the Egyptians has not changed at all.”
He added that the physical features of Egypt, however, have changed considerably. “I am literally impressed by the enormous development Egypt has achieved.”
Ambassador Oka said that in his residence in Garden City hangs a black-and-white photo taken in 1864 showing a Japanese delegation in samurai attire, awestruck by their first encounter with the Sphinx and the Pyramids.
“Nowadays, you find many of the thick footprints of the bilateral friendship in Egypt, including the Cairo Opera House, the Children Hospital at Abu El Arish and the Peace Bridge, the first bridge built over the Suez Canal, in addition to E-JUST (Egypt Japan University for Science and Technology) at Borg el-Arab and the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM). The list can go on but it speaks volumes about the successful cooperation between the two countries.”
Antiquities
This year is the 100th anniversary of the discovery of the tomb of King Tutankhamen and the 200th anniversary of the deciphering of hieroglyphics. As for the GEM, Japan has played an important role.
“I feel proud that Japan has been cooperating as the major partner in the construction of the GEM by providing the necessary financing and technical cooperation. I am pleased to witness Japanese and Egyptian experts working hand in hand for the conservation and restoration of priceless artifacts, particularly those of King Tutankhamen.
“GEM is another symbol of friendship between Japan and Egypt. The people around the globe will soon see these artifacts on display at the GEM and I am convinced that many tourists from all over the world, including Japan, will visit the GEM repeatedly to learn the great role that the ancient Egyptian civilisation had played for the progress of mankind.”
Covid-19
Japan and Egypt have a broad scope for their bilateral cooperation, including, among others, education, infrastructure, renewable energy, health, agriculture, and culture. The ambassador vows that it is high in his agenda to further advance cooperation between them in all these fields.
“Covid-19 presented us with unprecedented challenges of ensuring the safety of people’s lives while maintaining their livelihood. I would like to congratulate the Egyptian government and people for successfully stabilising the Covid-19 situation and, at the same time, keeping its economy growing — a rare feat among the countries in the world.”
Japan has been supporting the Egyptian efforts by providing assistance worth more than $250 million. This includes donating Japanese-made vaccines, providing logistic support for the vaccine cold chains known as the “Last One Mile Support” and donating Japanese-made medical equipment such as CT scanners.
Food Security
On the issue of food security, of which severity has intensified due to the Russian military operation in Ukraine, Japan is committed to enhancing the water supply systems for the essential crops such as wheat.
In April, Japan started its new Official Development Assistance (ODA) project to construct new regulators to optimise the water flow of the Nile in the city of Daryout in Assuit Governorate.
Ambassador Oka said that the new regulators, when completed, will enable the delivery of Nile water to the farmland covering more than 15 per cent of all arable land in Egypt. In addition, technical cooperation for the maintenance of pumps will start this year.
COP27
In supporting the COP27 summit in Sharm el-Sheikh this November, Japan is committed to enhancing cooperation with Egypt in the area of environment in general and climate change in particular.
The ambassador pointed out that Japan is now working in cooperation with the Egyptian government and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to install Japanese-made solar power generation facilities in Sharm el-Sheikh, the New Administrative Capital, GEM and Egyptian-Japanese schools.
“Power for street lighting of some ‘Decent Life’ villages will come from solar power generators. The advantage of these types of solar power facilities is that they can be directly set up in the buildings without the need for costly transmission lines.”
Japan also works to reduce plastic waste, a major source of marine pollution in Egypt, whose plastic debris in sea areas ranks 8th in the world, through inventing innovative degradable materials as alternatives to plastic.
Investments
With regard to business, Ambassador Oka said Egypt offers a unique combination of advantages to investors: a huge domestic market, abundant local talent, a geographical location that straddles the Middle East and Africa and, above all, political and social stability.
“Japanese businesses are eager to capture these advantages,” the ambassador said.
Firstly, he added, foreign direct investment (FDI) from Japan to Egypt had increased by 60 per cent in fiscal year 2020-2021 over the previous year.
Secondly, Egypt’s first ever Samurai bonds with a value of ¥60 billion ($500 million) were issued in the Japanese market in March this year.
Ambassador Oka highlighted that it was the first time that the Japanese export credit agency, Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (NEXI) provided guarantee coverage with the Samurai bonds in the Middle East.
“I believe that the successful issue of Samurai bonds in the middle of the challenging global capital market situations shows strong confidence Japanese investors place in the Egyptian economy and will create, I hope, a momentum for further investment from Japan to Egypt.
“I will be willing to work with the Egyptian authorities for creating an enabling-investment environment so that as many new investments as possible from Japan will be materialised during my tenure of office in Egypt.”
