Monrovia-The full text of President George M Weah speech in Japan!!

Prime Minister Abe, Good Morning:

I am delighted to meet you this morning, and to bring you greetings from the People of Liberia.

My delegation and I are greatly appreciative of the warm hospitality that has been extended to us since our arrival in your beautiful country, and the excellent arrangements that have been made for our comfort and security.

I want to thank you for inviting us to this 7th Edition of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development.

Over the past few decades, Japan has made significant contributions to Africa’s development through the TICAD process, and this is a testament to the excellent relationship existing between African nations and your country.

Liberia is no exception, as we have benefitted immensely from your generosity, due to the strong bilateral relationship which has long existed between our two countries.

Many infrastructure projects and capacity-building programs have been implemented in Liberia, or are presently ongoing, which have been funded on a grant basis by Japan. Time will not permit me this morning to name them all, but it is important to mention a few:

1. Grant for the reconstruction and expansion of the Somalia Drive road in Monrovia; now referred to as the “Japan Freeway”.
2. Food aid to Liberia;
3. Emergency assistance during the Ebola crisis;
4. Grant for the procurement and installation of a 10 megawatt generator to support the expansion of electricity in Monrovia and its environs;
5. Grant for construction of the Liberia-Japanese Friendship Maternity Hospital at the John F. Kennedy Medical Center;
6. Training opportunities granted to more than two hundred Liberians to pursue specialized studies at various Japanese colleges and universities.
7. Deployment of more than 170 young Japanese volunteers to Liberia under the Japan Overseas Co-operation Volunteer program, to provide technical assistance in the areas of Science, Math, Agriculture, Auto Maintenance and Maternal Health Care.
8. Grant for the construction of 282 housing units in Sasstown, my hometown.
9. Omega Market Project

Prime Minister Abe, the people of Liberia are very grateful for the generosity and support that we have received, and are continuing to receive, from your country.

Mr. Prime Minister:

For the purpose of TICAD-7, we have circulated the details of a number of priority projects that we believe are crucial for the realization of our development objectives. The details are contained in this dossier, which I would now like to hand to your for your easy reference.

Your Excellency, let me assure you that is the intention of my Administration to further strengthen the ties of bilateral friendship that already exist between our two countries.

Before I end these remarks, I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate you on your historic election victory earlier this month, thus making you to become the second-longest serving prime minister in Japanese history. Your repeated endorsements by the electorate suggests that your policies and programs are satisfactory to their hopes and aspirations, and attests to the confidence that they repose in your leadership.

On a more personal note, I have learned that when you were first elected Prime Minister, you were 52 years old, thus becoming Japan’s youngest post-war Prime Minister. Similarly, when I was elected President of Liberia last year, I was 52 years old. And so we both have experienced what it means to assume the awesome responsibility of national leadership at such an early age. Perhaps we need to share and compare notes.

And now, in closing, on behalf of the People of Liberia, and in my own name, I would like to extend to you an invitation to visit our country at your earliest convenience, so that you may have the opportunity to witness at first hand the positive impact that the generosity of the Japanese Government and its People is having on the lives and livelihood of the citizens of Liberia.

Thank you.