DHAKA, 25 December 2020, (TON): Japanese Ambassador to Bangladesh Ito Naoki expressed his country's stance as to the Rohingya repatriation process to their homeland in Myanmar and they want to see the start of the process next year.

On Thursday, Japanese Ambassador Naoki joined the Diplomatic Correspondents Association, Bangladesh (DCAB) Talk at the Jatiya Press Club in Dhaka and said about the Rohingya repatriation process as well as the importance of Bangladesh to Japan.

"The Rohingya issue is very important. To see progress, we should see the start of the repatriation process next year. Japan will continue to help in this matter", he said.

Highlighting Japan's initiatives to solve the solution, he said Japan is communicating directly with top military officials and at the government level on the Rohingya crisis.

The Japanese Ambassador mentioned both Bangladesh and Myanmar are also traditionally a very friendly country to Japan and there is a possibility to negotiate this matter.

To date, two repatriation attempts turned futile as Myanmar failed to remove distrust among the Rohingyas and there was a lack of congenial environment in Rakhine for their return.

Also, Myanmar did not take back a single Rohingya from Bangladesh over the last two years but they misled the international community by claiming that a total of 397 displaced people voluntarily returned from Bangladesh to Myanmar.

Naoki shared four reasons why Bangladesh is important to Japan including growth potential and geopolitical strategic location.

He said Bangladesh has a great opportunity for its readymade garments to develop its economy more and there will be a completely different look of Bangladesh in terms of quality infrastructure with the implementation of quality projects.

"There is no doubt that beyond Covid-19 pandemic, Bangladesh will keep growing", he said.

Ambassador Naoki said the Bangladesh government has done a wonderful job to create an investment friendly environment in Bangladesh.