Top �� What's up around the Prime Minister �� April, 2003

Ceremony of Certification of Plan for Special Zones for Structural Reform Monday, April 21, 2003 Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi granted the first certificate for a plan for special zones for structural reform at the Prime Minister's Official Residence. One hundred and twenty-nine proposals were submitted for this plan by 111 institutions. Among those, 57 refined proposals were certified at the first round of process and certificates were granted to the representatives of municipal organizations including the mayor of Ishikari City, Hokkaido. An example of special zones where gets certified at the first round of process was Ota City, Gunma Prefecture's "Ota Foreign Language Education Special Zone," in which the city and the private sector cooperate to establish a school providing unified lower and upper secondary school education with classes conducted in English. Others included Uchinomicho, Kagawa Prefecture's "Uchinomicho, Shodoshima Olive Promotion Special Zone", which seeks creation of new businesses through the entry of joint stock companies into agricultural management and the effective utilization of unused land, and Adachi-ku, Tokyo's "Human Resources Business-assisted Employment Creation Special Zone", which will implement employment placement services through the establishment of a public-private sector liaison office. Prime Minister Koizumi, who stood on the opening greeting, said, "Revival of economy and society depends in large part on strength of local bodies and the private sector, and the challenges without fear of failure are needed." and went on to say, "I want to support the emergence of national change from the local level, promoting the revitalization of regions and their independence under the motto of 'one region, one tourism'." From now on, while the second round of certification will be taken place in mid-May, a second round of registration of certification for special zones will start from July 1.