Washington, D.C. – Today, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency announced cooperation with Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) on the Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) Value Chain and Natural Gas Cooperation Training Program.

• The program will support LNG infrastructure development in the Indo-Pacific region and include a training hosted by METI in Tokyo for Indo-Pacific officials on gas infrastructure development and high-quality procurement in October 2018. Following the training, USTDA will host a complementary reverse trade mission connecting delegates from Indo-Pacific countries to U.S. gas infrastructure best practices, policies and financing sources that can support energy projects across the region. The delegation will also participate in USTDA’s Global Procurement Initiative Training.

This program comes as a result of an MOC signed last year facilitating cooperation between USTDA and METI on developing quality infrastructure in the Indo-Pacific region.

“We appreciate the opportunity to cooperate with METI on our shared goals of supporting high quality infrastructure development in the Indo-Pacific region,” said USTDA’s Director, Congressional and Public Affairs, Thomas R. Hardy. “We look forward to seeing the positive results that will come from the training and reverse trade mission.”

METI’s Director General, Trade and Economic Cooperation Bureau, Masaki Ishikawa said “We would like to take this opportunity as an important step to expand cooperation between USTDA and METI to promote Japan and US businesses in Indo-Pacific.”

The cooperation was announced and discussed at the Indo-Pacific Business Forum hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, where U.S. Cabinet Secretaries and senior leaders from government and business discussed potential areas for energy collaboration in the Indo-Pacific.