Staff writer

KOBE -- Kobe officials must make further efforts to attract investment by small and medium-size foreign enterprises, especially small high-tech firms, and must avoid assuming investors should be isolated on Port Island or Rokko Island like the ancient Dutch traders on Dejima.

Those were just two opinions expressed Monday at the fourth annual Kansai Consular Summit in Kobe. Sponsored by the Hyogo Prefectural Government, the city of Kobe and the Kobe Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the summit brought together diplomats from 23 consulates in the Kansai region as well as observers from embassies in Tokyo and honorary consul generals from around Japan.