Japan grants P107 M for education project

MANILA, Philippines - Japanese Ambassador Toshinao Urabe and Secretary of Foreign Affairs Albert del Rosario recently formalized the Japanese Grant Aid for Human Resource Development Scholarship (JDS) Project.

This grant aid provides a fund amounting to 263 million yen (approximately P107.6 million) to cover the cost of 20 JDS fellows, consisting of young Filipino officials from various government institutions, for their study in Japan starting Academic Year 2014-2015.

The JDS, a scholarship project financed by the government of Japan through its Official Development Assistance (ODA)-Grant Aid Program, has been implemented in 11 countries including the Philippines since 2002. From 2002-2012, the government of Japan has allocated approximately 3.2 billion yen (appromately P1.3 billion) for the project.

The project aims to enhance the JDS fellows’ expertise in their respective fields such as good governance, agriculture and rural development, financial reform and investment promotion policy and peace and stability in Mindanao and to help build a pool of future Filipino leaders who will greatly contribute to the country’s overall economic development by returning to and working in the Philippines.

To date, the Philippines has a total of 219 JDS fellows.