Japan will provide 206 million yen (Tk15.7 crore) in grant aid for human resource development scholarships aimed at capacity building for Bangladesh government officials.
At the start of a new four-year phase this year, 15 Bangladeshi civil servants will get the opportunity to study and do research at different universities in Japan in areas like public administration, economic planning and policy, urban and rural planning and policy, public finance and investment policy, and legal capacity and policy.
Mikio Hataeda, country representative of Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica), and Mohammad Mejbahuddin, secretary to the Economic Relations Division, signed the grant agreement on behalf of their respective governments in Dhaka yesterday, according to a press release.
The scholarship programme, called JDS, is open to Bangladesh Civil Service cadre officers and Bangladesh Bank class-1 officers.
“To make the most of this JDS project, it is expected of the Bangladesh government to place the returning JDS fellows in appropriate positions to make use of what they have learnt in Japan,” Mikio Hataeda said.
Since 2002, 228 Bangladeshi officials have studied under JDS, and 196 of them successfully achieved Masters degrees.
“Human resource development is the base of socio-economic development. JDS provides opportunities to study and learn how public administration is managed in Japan,” Japanese Ambassador to Bangladesh Shiro Sadoshima said at the signing ceremony.
