Safiqul Islam (Jami)
The Japanese Government will provide TK 230 crore for assistance in two human resource development projects in Bangladesh. That is 289.10 million yen in Japanese currency. Japan is the single largest development partner providing financial assistance for socio-economic development of Bangladesh. The grant agreement was signed between the governments of Bangladesh and Japan on Thursday.
ERD Secretary Fatima Yasmin represented the Government of Bangladesh at the signing ceremony at the conference room of the Department of Economic Relations (ERD) in Sher-e-Bangla Nagar. The Japanese government was represented by Yoho Hayakawa, Head of JICA’s Dhaka Office, and Ito Naoki, Ambassador of Japan. As of November this year, the country’s aid pledges have exceeded 27.40 billion US dollar.
According to the ERD, the Human Development Scholarship (JDS) project being implemented by the ERD to build skilled human resources will get a grant of TK 35.75 crore for 2021. Most of which will be spent on higher education scholarships for government officials at various universities in Japan. So far, 383 have obtained master’s degrees and 2 PhDs from Japan under the project. From 2001 to 2020, Japan contributed about 6.8 billion Japanese yen to the project.
The Japanese government will provide a grant of TK 194.32 crore for the ‘Improvement of Governance and Management Research and Training Facilities’ project. These grants will be used to develop physical infrastructure for training and research. In addition to the two agreements, a ‘Record of Discussion (RD)’ has been signed for three projects under technical assistance.
According to ERD, Japan is the single largest development partner providing financial assistance to Bangladesh for its socio-economic development. As of November this year, the country’s aid pledged exceeded 27.40 billion US dollar. During this time, Japanese loans and grants amounted to 16.18 billion in various sectors including electricity, roads, bridges, telecommunications, agriculture, health, education, water supply and sanitation, rural development, environment, and human resource development.
