“The fish market for the Uliga Dock area is on track,” Marshall Islands Marine Resources Authority Director Glen Joseph said Wednesday.
The project has gone through all of the preliminary review, vetting and design steps, with the only remaining requirement approval by the Japanese cabinet.
Joseph is hopeful that approval will be given so that the project will start during Japanıs upcoming fiscal year, which starts April 1.
The Marshall Islands and Japan, which formerly administered these islands under a League of Nations Mandate between World War I and II, maintain close diplomatic ties, with this western Pacific nation consistently voting in support of Japan at International Whaling Commission meetings and at the United Nations.
It will probably take about one year from start of work to complete the facility.
The Japan International Cooperation Agency project will construct a fish market building that will contain a retail area, cold storage facilities, processing rooms for “adding value” to fish products, and provide boats for transporting fish from remote islands to the market in the capital.
The fisheries department operates a small fish market now in the back of its office, but it receives limited use.
Joseph believes the new plan is in a much-improved location that will increase its business.
