The Mauritius Meteorological Station will by March 2015 be equipped with a Doppler Weather radar. In this context, Mauritius and Japan signed a grant agreement in relation to the donation of the weather radar system, this afternoon in the presence of the Prime Minister, Dr. Navinchandra Ramgoolam, in Port Louis.
The Mauritian side was represented by the Secretary to Cabinet and Head of the Civil Service, Mr. Sureshchandra Seebaluck, and Japan was represented by the Ambassador-designate of Japan to Mauritius, Mr. Ryuhei Hosoya, and the Senior Representative of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Mr. Hajime Watanabe.
In his address, Dr. Ramgoolam expressed his pleasure at witnessing the signature of the agreement and recalled that this ceremony is testimony of the bilateral ties that exist between Mauritius and Japan since 1969.
He also pointed out that after his meeting with his Japanese counterpart, Mr. Abe Shinzo, during the 5th Tokyo International Conference on African Development in Yokohama, Japan, both countries have pledged work towards further consolidating bilateral relations.
Dr. Ramgoolam said that Japan has been helping Mauritius through JICA since the 1980’s especially with regard to fisheries, coastal protection and rehabilitation, and in the future, assistance from Japan would focus on environment, climate change and the management of natural disasters.
He stated that the grant of the new meteorological radar system is an example of the Japanese economic cooperation to Mauritius, and added that the donation to the tune of Rs 400 million, will not only help in acquiring the radar, but also finance the construction of a new radar building at Trou aux Cerfs. The building will also house a public gallery.
As a Small Island Developing State, Mauritius is highly vulnerable to the extreme weather patterns like the flash floods of March 2013, underlined the Prime Minister. This new radar will generate more accurate weather forecasts, a critical requirement, which will help prepare the population in facing the calamities.
For his part, Ambassador Hosoya, who also paid a courtesy call on the Prime Minister prior to the signature ceremony, said that he had a fruitful meeting with the Prime Minister. During the meeting, a broad range of subjects on areas for bilateral cooperation were covered.
Mr. Hosoya stated that there is a need for more strategic focus to further the bilateral cooperation between Mauritius and Japan, and added that this grant agreement is a symbolic representation of cooperation between the two countries.
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