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February 2015 |
The Vice Minister conveyed the interest of the Government of Japan to encourage greater collaboration in higher education with the Caribbean and pointed to the Japan-CARICOM Friendship Year (2014) as a basis for this. He issued an invitation to all the UWI campus principals to visit Japanese universities and it was agreed that further discussions with the Japanese Ambassador would work out details for these and reciprocal visits. Along with Campus Registrar, Richard Saunders, and Director of the Office of Institutional Advancement and Internationalisation, Sharan Singh, were Deans Indar Ramnarine, Brian Copeland, Isaac Bekele and Haricharan Seetharaman (representing the Faculty of Medical Sciences). The conversation touched on possible collaborations in areas such as disaster preparedness and management, science and technology, medical technology, food (science, processing and technology) and technology transfer (commercialization of IP). Mr Singh indicated that it would be ultimately desirable to see students and staff from Japan and the Caribbean conducting visits, exchanges and collaborations but that the universities need to begin to develop institutional collaborations as the precursor to this. The Vice Minister also revealed that he has proposed to the CARICOM Secretariat the establishment of a Scholarship Fund for Caribbean students to study in Japan. The Vice Minister’s entourage also included Mr. Daisuke Ichikawa, Secretary to the Parliamentary Vice Minister, Ms. Mika Suzuki, Political Adviser, Embassy of Japan, Trinidad and Tobago and Mr. Jiro Kodera, Translator. After their discussions, and an exchange of gifts, the party was due to fly off to Panama and Washington, DC. |
A whirlwind visit by His Excellency Takashi Uto, Parliamentary Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan, on January 10, resulted in an interesting and promising conversation between members of his delegation, which included His Excellency Yoshimasa Tezuka, Ambassador of Japan, and UWI officials at the St. Augustine campus.