By Asad Cheema
ISLAMABAD: The Government of Japan on Thursday announced grant aid worth around 318 million Japanese Yen for the Human Resource Development Scholarship (JDS) program in Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Matsuda Kuninori the Ambassador of Japan in Pakistan and Noor Ahmed, Secretary of Ministry of Economic Affairs, have signed an Exchange of Notes (E/N) on this program.
A Grant Agreement (G/A) for the aforementioned program was also signed between Mr. Rahman Shah, Deputy Secretary of Ministry of Economic Affairs and Mr. Shigeki Furuta, Chief Representative of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Pakistan Office. 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 program 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-hows 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 program this year. For the third batch, the maximum number of the slots for JDS participants in Pakistan are eighteen (18) seats for Master’s degree and two (2) seats for Doctoral degree.
Mr. Shigeki Furuta mentioned “This program will 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 program 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.
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.
MATSUDA Kuninori has said that JDS scholarship is expected to contribute to capacity building of civil servants, which will augment their skill to formulate and implement socio-economic development plans in Pakistan.
Japan will continue to contribute especially for education sector for the prosperous future of Pakistan, said the Ambassador.
