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

The First Meeting of the Headquarters for the Regional Revitalization Friday, October 24, 2003 The first meeting of the Headquarters for the Regional Revitalization was held at the Prime Minister's Official Residence. The Headquarters was established inside the Cabinet for the purpose of actively and comprehensively promoting the revitalization of regional economies and creation of regional employment from the standpoint of the regional areas. With Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi as the chair, Mr. Kazuyoshi Kaneko, Minister of State, was appointed as the Minister in charge of Regional Revitalization. The Headquarters for the Regional Revitalization will strongly promote the revitalization of regional economies and creation of regional employment in all regions nationwide, in collaboration with the Special Zones for Structural Reform which establish special measures for regulations by taking into consideration the special local characteristics. The regional resources such as tourism resources, technologies and tradition of the local community will be at the core of their efforts. The Headquarters is scheduled to formulate the basic guideline for the regional revitalization by the end of this year. At the end of the meeting, Prime Minister Koizumi said, "I would like to ask relevant ministers to work actively and cooperatively for the regional revitalization."