On January 19th, 2021, His Excellency KARASAWA Akira, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan in Palau, and Honorable Faustina K. Rehuher-Marugg, Minister of State of the Republic of Palau, exchanged notes on the Japan’s grant aid of up to 500 million yen (approximately $4.8 million) for the purpose of the implementation of “The Economic and Social Development Programme” for Palau. The ceremony was witnessed by Mr. Victor Remengesau, Director, Bureau of Marine Law Enforcement and Fish & Wildlife Protection, Ministry of Justice and other guests from DMLE.
Through this project, Japan is going to provide the Government of Palau with a set of equipment to build two monitoring stations in Ngeremlengui and Malakal. These new stations will help Palau to improve its capacity to monitor main sea passages and coastal areas. As a result, it is expected that Palau will be able to address illegal fishing and shipping accidents in more precisely and timely manners.
At the ceremony, Minister Marugg and Director Remengesau thanked Ambassador Karasawa and the Government of Japan for the economic cooperation with which Japan has provided Palau on many occasions, including “The Economic and Social Development Programme”.
Ambassador Karasawa stated that maritime domain awareness is critically important for Palau, and Japan has been promoting the cooperation in this area for a long time as a symbolic trilateral corporation with the US and Australia. He concluded his speech by stating that the new grant aid symbolizes further development of the strong relationship between Japan and Palau.