TOKYO, Japan (CMC) — Japan has pledged to assist the Caribbean Community (Caricom) countries with financial and technical assistance despite the regional countries being graduated to middle-income countries and therefore no longer eligible for concessionary loans on the basis of mere per capita income.

Director of the Caribbean Division, Latin American and Caribbean Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs here, Maki Kobayashi-Terada, told regional journalists that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had, during the first ever Japan-Caricom summit in Trinidad and Tobago in July, indicated that Tokyo was aware of the situation facing the regional countries and was prepared to assist them in that regard.

“We promised that we are going to extend cooperation and we have already increased six fold compared to the past few years. We are going to work together in order to have meaningful cooperation even though some of the Caribbean countries have a higher standard of living in terms of per capita income.

“As Caribbean countries argued it doesn’t reflect precisely the situation of Caribbean countries. We understand, so that’s why our prime minister said that we recognise the importance of assisting Caribbean countries other than those based on per capita income.

“… So that is why we are having the field research because you might not need the assistance or you might need the assistance in certain areas,” she said, adding that “for some countries, definitely without any reason you need some assistance but in that case we usually have field research.”

Kobayashi-Terada said for those countries that have already graduated “we are going to have them studied, find out what are the necessities, what are the priorities and we are going to discuss within our government what we can do”.

Caricom foreign ministers are expected to meet with their Japanese counterpart this weekend and Kobayashi-Terada said it provides an opportunity for Tokyo to cooperate more with the regional bloc countries on a global level.

According to a joint statement issued here on Monday the November 15 meeting is a follow-up to the first Japan-Caricom Summit held in July “and is expected to enhance collaboration on various global agenda, including environment issues and climate change”.

The statement said that Caricom countries “frequently taking a common position in the international arena, hold a certain presence in the international community.

“It is expected that they will deepen their understanding and support towards Japan’s position on various global issues through this conference.”

The statement said that it is expected that the relationship between Japan and the regional community bloc “will be further strengthened through this conference on the occasion of Japan-Caricom Friendship Year 2014”.

Kobayashi-Terada said that the meeting here will discuss “international issues because next year is going to be the 70th anniversary of the United Nations so we would like to focus a lot on the issues of the United Nations.

“We would like to listen carefully what are the Caribbean countries’ concerns and positions in order to be able to better represent them in other international forums where we are participating and Caribbean countries are not.

She said at the same time Tokyo “would also like to find a way on how to cooperate more closely; we would also like to advance the Security Council reform issues and also post- 2015 agenda.

“Next year we have many issues to be discussed so we would like to prepare in order to build on each other and this is November and we are getting to the end of the Friendship Year and we would like to confirm what has been happening throughout this year and what we are going to do in the coming years in order to have a much closer relationship,” she said.

Japan will next March host the Third World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (WCDRR) and according to Katsunobu Takada, the principal deputy director, Global Issues Cooperation Division, Caribbean countries should ensure that they are represented at the talks.

“Generally speaking, many experts say if we are prepared well we can minimise the economic loss,” she said, adding that his advice would also be that regional countries should seek to allocate a percentage of their national budget towards disaster risk reduction.

The March 14-18 meeting is a UN-conference to discuss international strategy on risk reduction. Japan hosted the first two meetings and the meeting in Sendai is aimed at completing the assessment and review of the implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action.

It will also consider the experience gained through the regional and national strategies and institutions and plans for disaster risk reduction and to adopt a post-2015 framework for disaster risk reduction.

The five-day meeting will also identify modalities of cooperation based on commitments to implement a post-2015 framework for disaster risk reduction as well as to determine modalities for periodic review of the implementation of a post 2015 framework.

Earlier, regional journalists were told that Japan had provided US$11.65 million to Caribbean countries during the period 2010-12 to deal with the impact of climate change.

The figures also showed that from June 2013 to June 2014, Tokyo had provided US$7.35 million.