DFA hopes to start arrangements for Nagoya consulate before yearend
The Department of Foreign Affairs ( DFA) is eyeing to start arrangements for the establishment of a consulate in Nagoya, Japan before the end of the year.
"The proposed Consulate General in Nagoya is not yet open but it is hoped that initial arrangements can begin before yearend 2019 and full operations to start in 2020," Assistant DFA Secretary Eduardo Meñez told Manila Shimbun in a text message.
President Rodrigo Duterte, during his bilateral meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the sidelines of the 35th ASEAN Summit and Related Summits in Thailand on Monday, thanked the latter for allowing the Philippines to put up a consulate in Nagoya to cater to the Filipinos there.
"The Filipino Chief Executive also thanked the Japanese leader for granting consent for our plan to open a Philippine Consulate-General in Nagoya, which the latter favorably responded to by saying that he is pleased and honored to have our presence in the said city of Japan," said Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo in a statement on Tuesday.
Asked of the initial arrangements the DFA has to undertake before opening a new consulate in Nagoya, Meñez said, "usually meeting with the Aichi Prefecture and Nagoya City officials from the Philippine embassy in Tokyo and maybe an advance team from DFA Manila."
He said part of the discussion would be to find the location for the new consulate.
In a previous interview, Philippine Ambassador to Japan Jose C. Laurel said that the government wants to establish a consulate in Nagoya because the city is a manufacturing center.
"It is not only Toyota. The entire gamut of manufacturing in Mitsubishi Electric, Mitsubishi Motors, Noritake, and the other industries are located there. So everybody is going there," he told reporters last May when Duterte visited Japan.
Panelo said that during the bilateral meeting, Duterte and Abe also discussed the issue surrounding the South China Sea and the situation in the Korean Peninsula.
On the South China Sea issue, he said the two leaders talked about the drafting of the Code of Conduct to address tensions in the affected region while on the situation in the Korean Peninsula, they discussed North Korea's latest ballistic missile launch and the longstanding issue of abduction of Japanese nationals.
"In the domestic front, President Duterte and Prime Minister Abe covered a wide range of areas for cooperation, such as the peace process in Mindanao, the Build-Build-Build infrastructure projects (with emphasis on the eagerly-awaited Metro Manila Subway), the development of Subic Bay, the dispatch of Filipino skilled labor force to Japan, agricultural trade (including tariffs of Philippine bananas and other fruits), the issue of comfort women, and the participation of Japan-trained Filipino gymnast Carlos Yulo in the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics," he added. Celerina Monte/DMS
