Japan provides US$ 3 m grant for JDS programme
Japan provides US$ 3 m grant for JDS programme
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) -The government of Japan has announced grant aid worth around US$ 3 million for the Human Resource Development Scholarship (JDS) programme in Pakistan.
In this connection, Ambassador of Japan to Pakistan Matsuda Kuninori and Secretary Ministry of Economic Affairs Noor Ahmed signed the exchange of notes on the programme.
The grant agreement for the aforementioned programme was also signed between Deputy Secretary of Ministry of Economic Affairs Rahman Shah and Chief Representative of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Pakistan Office FURUTA Shigeki.
The JDS is designed to support social and economic development of the country by providing government officials an opportunity to obtain master’s or doctoral degree in Japan in order to strengthen the administrative capacity of officials.
The participants of JDS programme who are involved in formulation and implementation of policies are expected to learn in partner universities in Japan and acquire knowledge of their specialties as well as the know-how of how Japan became a country as it is today.
As JDS in Pakistan was started from 2018 and has four batches in consecutive four years, Pakistan is experiencing the third batch of the programme this year.
For the third batch, the maximum number of the slots for JDS participants in Pakistan are 18 seats for master’s degree and two seats for doctoral degree.
FURUTA Shigeki said the programme would provide young and promising government officials with significant opportunity to study and obtain master’s or PhD degrees in universities in Japan.
“Those who attend this programme are anticipated to play leading roles of the government in the future in formulating and implementing social and economic policies for the development of Pakistan,” he said.
Japan is a unique country with a history of building a liberal nation with advancement in socio-economy and technology from scratch after the World War II.
“I am quite sure that the JDS fellows will gain public administrative capacity together with wider and deeper knowledge and broad human networks through this program,” FURUTA Shigeki added.
MATSUDA Kuninori noted that the JDS scholarship was expected to contribute to strengthen the administrative capacities of government of Pakistan by providing the opportunity to obtain the master and doctor of philosophy degree to talented government officers who are involved in formulation and implementation of social and economic development of Pakistan.
The ambassador said Japan would continue to support Pakistan in the future as a friend and I hope this project would further contribute to strengthen the existing bond of friendship between the two countries.
