Mr. Kazunari Maeda, President of MAFGA
Ladies and gentlemen,
I would like to express my congratulations on the 25th anniversary of the friendship between Lower Hutt and Minoh. My name is Kazunari Maeda. I took office as president of MAFGA (Minoh Association of Global Awareness) on July 1st.
MAFGA has been supporting the international exchanges and citizen-to-citizen interactions between both cities over the quarter century.
As a personal note, I am privileged with opportunities to visit Lower Hutt four times; one for the signing ceremony of the Friendship Agreement in 1995 and three more trips during the period. At the signing ceremony I still remember many smiles of people who enjoyed the Japanese culture presentation. Since then I continued to work at the Minoh City Office to help international exchanges.
At my retirement, Mr. Ray Wallace, then-mayor of Lower Hutt, kindly sent me a letter of appreciation for my service, and I keep it as my treasure.
The Minoh Hutt Friendship House was built with financial contributions by over 700 private citizens and corporations in Minoh, including myself and my family. I hope the friendship house will be actively used as a Japanese culture center there.
Let me conclude my speech by wishing more active communications and interactions between the two cities and their citizens.
Thank you very much.
Kazunari Maeda,
President Minoh Association for Global Awareness
30 July 2020