First-ever meeting of representatives of the Visegrad Four countries in Japan

The first-ever meeting of representatives of the Visegrad Four (V4) countries from the diplomatic corps and the private sector in Japan took place on 9 December 2015 at the Czech embassy in Tokyo. The Czech Republic, which currently holds the presidency of the group, was the main organiser of the event, the primary impetus for which emerged from a discussion on cooperation between the Czech Chamber of Trade and Industry in Japan and it Polish counterpart. 

The meeting was attended by ambassadors and commercial counsellors of all V4 member countries, representatives of trade and industrial chambers of the Czech Republic and Poland in Japan, and the local representative of CzechInvest. Even though this was the first such meeting of representatives of these countries in Japan, the participants agreed on cooperation in three working areas – investment and technology, trade and tourism. Proposals of initial events to be held in 2016 were also put forth and regular meetings of the group on this platform were agreed upon.

“I consider the start of cooperation between chambers of commerce and diplomats of the V4 to be an important moment. Though we are competitors, we can also be partners. It is necessary to recognise the size of the Japanese market with 127 million inhabitants in relation to the size of the V4 countries. By joining together, we can become more visible and thus more attractive. We can jointly put forward the values that we share and present the V4 as a dynamic and safe region for developing commercial cooperation,” says Tomáš Dub, ambassador of the Czech Republic in Japan.

“Although foreign investment is the area in which we compete most with the other countries of the Visegrad Four, there is a lot of room here for sharing resources, experience and contacts, especially in the field of events focused on scientific and technological cooperation. We are already planning events for next year,” says Michal Žižlavský, CzechInvest’s foreign representative in Tokyo.