JAPAN - BEAUTIFUL HARMONY
INTERVIEW
JIRO TAKEICHI, CHIEF REPRESENTATIVE OF THE JICA BALKAN OFFICE
We Wish to Deepen
OUR PARTNERSHIP
We are looking forward to the moment when we will be able to meet face-to-face and continue working on our projects together with our Serbian partners.
S
ince the declaring of the pandemic, the JICA Balkan Office has prioritised the health of its office staff and their families. Therefore, following the recommendations of the Serbian government, shorter working hours and work from home were introduced. And a consequence of this was that communication was shifted to online meetings, first internally and then also with counterparts and partners. Although the same working style is still a must, JICA is now focused on activities that aim to solve the issues of partner countries. “It is so important that, through the activities, we 20
also convey to our partner countries the Japanese working style and way of thinking and to gain their understanding,” says Jiro Takeichi, Chief Representative of the JICA Balkan Office. “Since we wish to deepen the partnership between Japan and Serbia through our mutual understanding, we are slightly concerned that real understanding cannot be achieved if there is no face-to-face contact. We are therefore looking forward to having the freedom of movement that existed before the pandemic, so that Serbian and Japanese people can meet face-to-face and continue working on projects together.”
