Endemen Aderachehu.
Kibran ena kibrat,
Enkwan dehina metachehu. (Welcome.)

Thank you very much for joining us for this 3rd Japan Festival today.

For the past two years, the Embassy of Japan and JICA have co-organized this Festival to facilitate better understanding of Japanese development assistance as well as to promote Japanese culture at the grassroots level here in Ethiopia.  In addition, there is one more aim this year.  The Japanese community in Ethiopia would like to take this opportunity to express its sincere gratitude to the Ethiopian people for the strong solidarity you showed to the Japanese people, together with your generous support when the 3.11 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami hit Japan last year.  Amesegnalehu Ethiopia!

For this Festival, the Japanese Embassy, JICA, the Japanese Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV), the JICA Ethiopia Alumni Association (JETAA) and a Japanese NGO have prepared a variety of booth exhibitions.  In some of the booths, you can learn about Japanese ODA in education, water supply, agriculture and so on, while in others, you can experience Japanese calligraphy, origami and traditional kimonos. On this occasion, I would like to express my appreciation to the young JOCV members, JICA colleagues, JETAA and NGO staff and Embassy colleagues who have made all the preparations for today’s event.  Your hard work is remarkable, as we can see from the exhibits.

This is a fun, enjoyable and exciting event, where Japanese and Ethiopian people can get to know each other, and talk about life, culture, development and so on together.  So please do not hesitate to ask questions, collect information, give your comments, and even dance and sing together during this event.  I look forward to lively people-to-people exchanges today!

Melkam Koyeta. (Enjoy your stay.)  Betam Amesegnalehu!