HE Foreign Minister Inaugurates Educational Facility in Japan's Iwaki City

Iwaki, Japan, May 28 (QNA) - HE Foreign Minister Dr. Khalid bin Mohammed Al Attiyah Inaugurated Wednesday Qatar Friendship Fund's new educational project in the Japanese city of Iwaki, which is the third project of the Fund's rehabilitation projects in the areas affected by 2011 East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. HE the Foreign Minister gave the honorary key of the educational project, which costs a total of 6.9 million dollars, to students from the city of Iwaki in the Japanese Tohoku region. The ceremony was attended by HE Qatar's Ambassador to Japan Yusuf Mohammed Bilal, Kuwait's Ambassador to Japan Abdulrahman Al-Otaibi, Mayor of Iwaki city Toshio Shimizu, representative of Japanese Junior Achievement Organization and some students and teachers of preparatory and secondary schools in Iwaki as well as Qatar Friendship Fund's Goodwill Ambassador Tetsuya Bessho, high-level dignitaries, guests and the city residents. HE Dr. Khalid bin Mohammed Al Attiyah praised in a speech on this occasion the march of the strong ties between Japan and Qatar at both official and popular levels, saying that despite the geographical distance, Qatari people and the whole world had witnessed the disaster (earthquake and tsunami) which was a real tragedy affected everyone. He expressed his pride in Japan's swift recovery from this tragedy and saluted the courage of all Tohoku's residents who are a source of inspiration for everyone around the world. HE said that since the launch of Qatar Friendship Fund in 2012, a number of projects had been completed in all of Fukushima, Miyagi and Iwate Prefectures, adding that these projects focused on main areas represented in the health care, fisheries and entrepreneurship. The Fund is also looking forward to complete the rest of the projects in the coming months, he said. HE the Foreign Minister expressed hope that the project contributes to building and preparing future leaders. For his part, Mayor of Iwaki city Toshio Shimizu delivered a speech on behalf of the city residents in which he thanked the people of the State of Qatar on this generous donation and said that this comes at a time when the city needs to get out of the effects of the disaster that hit Japan in 2011. The representative of the Junior Achievement Organization also thanked the State of Qatar to adopt this project, saying that this project wouldn't be possible without the generous donation of the State of Qatar, represented by the Qatari-Japanese Friendship Fund. Meanwhile, two students delivered a speech in English and Japanese thanking Qatar for the donation and said that the current school building is comparable to other buildings in major cities in Japan and this motivates them to exert more effort in study. A short film about life in Qatar was also presented telling about the lives of parents and grandparents, the discovery of oil and Qatar in the present. The film also briefly reviewed the Qatari-Japanese relations. Then a group of students from the Music Education Centre presented traditional Japanese songs accompanied by musical instruments from the Japanese heritage. (QNA)