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Experienced FSM diplomat becomes new Chief of Staff to FSM President

Ambassador Kasio E. Mida returns to the national capital to assist President Mori

Palikir, POHNPEI (FSM Information Service): March 6, 2008 - Former FSM Ambassador to Japan, Kasio E. Mida, has taken up his new post as Chief of Staff to FSM President Manny Mori.

Announcing Ambassador Mida's return to the FSM capital from March 4, 2008, President Manny Mori said that he was grateful to Ambassador Mida for agreeing to take up the very challenging position as his Chief of Staff.

"I need his particular skills of management discipline combined with diplomatic experience and sensitivity in order to give full effect to the program that I have set for my Administration", President Mori said.

President Mori described Ambassador Mida as being instrumental in the early establishment and initial effectiveness of the FSM national government, when he served as Personnel Officer for the first President of the FSM, H.E. Tosiwo Nakayama. Following that, President Mori said, Ambassador Mida had further demonstrated exemplary management, representation and leadership skills when heading up the FSM's busy Consulate in Honolulu followed by the very sensitive Ambassadorial post in Tokyo.

Ambassador Kasio Mida hails from Faichuk in Chuuk State. Born in 1944, he graduated from Xavier High School before attending Rockhurst College in Kansas City, Missouri, where he graduated in 1968 with a BA in Political Science.

Between 1968 and 1979 Ambassador Mida worked as Political Affairs Adviser in the Truk (Chuuk) District Administration, as Personnel Specialist in the Department of Personnel in the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI) Administration in Saipan, as the Personnel Officer in Truk District, and then as Administrative Officer with the Interim Congress of the FSM.

From 1979 to 1983 Ambassador Mida served in the Cabinet of the first FSM Government as Personnel Officer for President Tosiwo Nakayama then continued his service as Special Assistant to the President from 1983 to 1986.

In 1986 Ambassador Mida was posted as FSM Consul General to Honolulu where he served for 18 years before being appointed as FSM Ambassador to Japan in 2004. >From the Tokyo chancery Ambassador Mida also served as FSM's Ambassador to the People's Republic of China and Republic of Korea.

Ambassador Mida is accompanied back to Pohnpei by his wife, the former Ginger Porter of Pohnpei. They have seven boys and two girls.