Dhaka, Jun 26 (UNB) - Japan has provided 495 million Japanese Yen or US $3.21 million for the human resources development in Bangladesh.
 
Ambassador of Japan to Bangladesh Iwama Kiminori and Secretary, Economic Relations Division, Ministry of Finance Md. Shahriar Kader Siddiky signed the exchange of notes on the Japanese Grant aid titled "the Project for Human Resource Development Scholarship (JDS)".
 
Based on this agreement between the two counties, ICHIGUCHI Tomohide, Chief Representative of JICA Bangladesh Office and Sharifa Khan signed a relevant grant agreement.
 
Since its inception in 2002, 507 Bangladeshi officials as master's degree students and 18 officials as doctoral degree students have studied in Japan under the JDS scheme.
 
In Japanese Fiscal Year 2024, Bangladesh ranked 2nd in the world in terms of the number of JDS fellows.
 
"Bangladesh is aiming at elevating to the developed countries in less than 20 years. In order to achieve this goal, the role of government officials is essential. I do believe that the support of our government to the government officials in Bangladesh has substantially contributed to the development of this country since 2002. I hope that the dispatch of young officials through our grant aid will accelerate the development of Bangladesh for another 20 years." said Ambassador Iwama.
 
Japan is the largest bilateral development partner of Bangladesh. Since independence, Japan has committed $32.37 billion and contributed significantly towards the overall development of the country.
 
In addition to soft loans, Japan is also providing a significant amount of grant and technical assistance for different projects, including support for human resource development, socio-economic development, and environment protection.
 
END/UNB/MK/AI/FH/1453 Hrs