The President of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Mr Shinichi Kitaoka, has said that Ghana will continue to enjoy Japan's cooperation and support, although the former has assumed a lower middle-income status.
He explained that although donor funding automatically dwindled with time as soon as a country attained a middle-income status, Ghana's current status would not affect the relationship between it and Japan.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic ahead of the seventh Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), Mr Kitaoka said that was because the bond between the two countries was founded on socio-economic cooperation and not just aid and loans or any financial assistance, which he said was always affected once a country attained a middle-income status.
He also said due to the cooperation between the two countries, the declaration of the Ghana beyond aid policy would not affect Japan's support to Ghana.
He described the policy as a good one and said Japan was ready to support the delivery of the Ghana beyond aid through existing cooperation mechanisms.
“Our relationship is based on cooperation and we will continue to partner Ghana and all middle-income African countries until they become self-reliant, resilient and well developed and even beyond,” he said.
