Former Prime Minister of Ethiopia Hailemariam Desalegn on Tuesday was chosen as one of Japan’s foreign recipients of the 2019 Spring Imperial Decorations.
The decoration was awarded in recognition of his outstanding contribution towards strengthening bilateral relations between Japan and Ethiopia as well as collaborating with Japan on TICAD and promoting Japan’s friendship with Africa.
Desalegn will receive the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun, according to a statement released by the embassy of Japan in Addis Ababa on Tuesday.
As the IGAD chair and a UN Security Council member, Ethiopia built and strengthened its cooperation with Japan’s efforts toward South Sudan’s stabilization, the statement said.
The former Prime Minister also chaired successive Japan-Ethiopia Industrial Policy Dialogues and introduced the Kaizen philosophy into Ethiopia.
Desalegn co-chaired TICAD V (2013) with PM Shinzo Abe and contributed to the adoption of the Yokohama Declaration as well as the Yokohama Action Plan 2013-2017.
In TICAD V, he contributed to Africa’s ownership-enhancement, the alignment between development plans in Africa and the TICAD process, and the promotion of the dialogue between the African and Japanese private sectors.
Following the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, then Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister expressed his sympathies with the disaster victims and handed over donations from the Ethiopian people.
Desalegn was also credited for promoting Japan’s private sector investment into Ethiopia.
MG/as/APA