April 25 2013 -- The Japanese ambassador to Seychelles, Toshihisa Takata, paid a courtesy call on President Michel at State House this morning.

Ambassador Takata delivered an invitation to President Michel on behalf of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for the Tokyo international conference on African development (Ticad) to be held in Japan in June this year.

This year’s Ticad conference is the fifth to be organised and it coincides with the 50th anniversary of the African Union (formerly Organisation of the African Unity).

Ambassador Takata said the meeting will take place under three themes.

“One is the consolidation of robust economy and economic growth. Many African countries have enjoyed a fairly quick rate of growth in the recent years. We need to maintain even accelerate this growth,” he said.

“At the same time, we need to give this growth a little bit more quality. All the African people’s lives have to be upgraded, this includes climate change issues. And the third one is peace and security, which is a very necessary condition for economic growth. Piracy issues is one of the important issues for peace and security.”

Ambassador Takata resides in Nairobi and this is his sixth visit to Seychelles, and his second to President Michel.