Japan provides grant for HR development scholarships

Islamabad:The Government of Japan today announced grant aid worth 326 million Japanese Yen (around $2.08 million) for the Human Resource Development Scholarship (JDS) programme in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

Mr. Mitsuhiro WADA, Ambassador of Japan to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, and Dr. Kazim Niaz, Secretary of Ministry of Economic Affairs, signed the Exchange of Notes (E/N) on this program at the ceremony on Thursday. The Grant Agreement (G/A) for the aforementioned program was also signed between Saeed Ashraf Siddiqi, Joint Secretary of Ministry of Economic Affairs and MIYATA Naoaki, chief representative of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Pakistan Office.

JDS is designed to support the social and economic development of the country by providing government officials with the opportunity to obtain Master's or Doctoral degree in Japan with aims to enhance their knowledge in public administration and to strengthen relationship between Japan and Pakistan. The participants of JDS program engaging in the formulation and implementation of such policies will be enrolled at the partner universities in Japan and are expected to acquire further knowledge in their field while learning about the Japanese culture and traditions.

Since 2018 when JDS was launched in Pakistan, 50 government officials have successfully completed their degrees while 33 are currently pursuing their academic goals in Japan. Further, 17 officials will be dispatched to Japan in the middle of the year 2024.

This occasion celebrates the signing of the seventh batch of this program in Pakistan. For this batch, the maximum number of the slots for JDS participants in Pakistan is 17 seats for the Master's degree and one seat for the Doctoral degree.

Mr. WADA highlighted "This project supports ‘People First’, the first pillar of the Pakistan Vision 2025, which places developing social and human capital at the centre of sustainable development in the country. The Government of Japan fully understands the importance of social and human capital development in public administration that can effectively address the multi-dimensional development challenges in this country. "

Mr. MIYATA while speaking at the event said, “Since the very beginning of Japan ODA, which is 70th anniversary in this year, training program has been delivered and from Pakistan, around 7,000 officials participated to the training. We desire that all JDS fellows together with those ex-trainees contribute to the development of Pakistan and improve the relationship between Pakistan and Japan into the future.”