The New Nation - Internet Edition

SYED ZAHIRUL ABEDIN

Japan has emerged as the biggest donor of Bangladesh providing the country more than 11 billion US dollars in assistance since its independence in 1971.

On the other hand, the United States has provided roughly five billion dollars in assistance to Bangladesh since its independence.

According to the statistics available, the cumulative commitment of Japan government's ODA loans stood at 635 billion yen, grant aid at 460 billion yen and technical assistance at 51 billion yen, amounting to US$11 billion till March this year.

Japan has been extending grant aid to Bangladesh, mainly in the field of basic human needs, especially in the area of agriculture, health and disaster management. Bangladesh is the largest country receiving Japan's grant aid in the form of debt relief.

Areas of Japanese assistance were initially agricultural development, infrastructure and health sectors through technical cooperation and grant aid, and also the balance of payment support and power projects through ODA loans. Since the mid-80s, Japan has expanded its scope of assistance to a wider range of infrastructure and social development areas, such as power, transportation, rural development, education, health, disaster management and environment.

Several major ODA loan projects include Jamuna Bridge, Chittagong International Airport, rural infrastructure like roads, bridges, and markets, and some fertilizer factories.

Japanese grant assistance helped to build Bangabandhu Agricultural University, cyclone shelters, Meghna Bridge and Meghna-Gomuti Bridge.

Examples of technical cooperation projects are Solid Waste Management Project in Dhaka City, Science and Mathematics Education Improvement Project, Participatory Rural Development Project, and Maternal and Child Health Project. Additionally, JICA has been promoting exchange of students and specialists between Bangladesh and Japan. About 1,000 JOCVs belonging to various fields worked in different areas of Bangladesh to support the people at the grassroots level, and more than 5,000 officials of Bangladesh underwent training or study in Japan on a wide range of subjects.

"Japan has been constantly assisting Bangladesh since 1972. As a good friend of Bangladesh, Japan will continuously support Bangladesh in the future," said Masayuki Inoue, Ambassador of Japan to Bangladesh, while speaking at the merger ceremony of JICA and JBIC at Sonargaon Hotel in the city recently.

As the Japan government's two largest aid agencies--Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC)-are going to be merged into a single entity on Wednesday next, the new organization will substantially strengthen its operation in Bangladesh in the years to come.

With some 10 billion US dollars of available financial resources and 1,633 staff, the new organization, named, as 'New JICA' will be the world's largest bilateral development organization working around 150 countries. Only 19 new JICA-JBIC combined offices will be established around the world and one of them will be in Dhaka.

"First, New JICA will continue to assist Bangladesh in both economic and social aspects of development as JICA and JBIC together have done in the past three decades," said Ms Nobuko Suzuki Kayashima, Resident Representative of JICA in Bangladesh.

"This is because we strongly believe that such a balanced approach can best tap and unleash the great potential of this country in its effort of tackling poverty reduction towards the Millennium Development Goals."

Speaking at the merging ceremony of JICA and JBIC, she said until now, technical cooperation has been handled by JICA, ODA loan by JBIC and grant aid by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. New JICA will handle them all together to maximize synergy effect of those schemes.

"We can offer tailor-made assistance to best address different development issues in a timely manner. We will continue finely-tuned technical cooperation, ranging from Japanese Overseas Volunteers Programme, dispatch of technical experts, and technical cooperation projects, mainly for capacity development. Besides, we will operate dynamic ODA loan to assist in infrastructure development. Moreover, we will become more flexible and better able to cooperate at the policy level on the one end of the spectrum and at the grassroots level on the other," she said.

Ms Nobuko Suzuki Kayashima also mentioned that New JICA would place greater emphasis on climate change and disaster management in the years to come in Bangladesh, which is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change.

"Our commitment is in line with the recent G8 Summit in Toyako, Hokkaido, and more recently Bangladesh Climate Change Conference in London. JICA has been the working on climate change and disaster management for around two decades.

Nonetheless, New JICA will make greater concerted effort to tackle this tough, but pressing issue. We will do it in close consultation with the Bangladesh government, which is among the priority countries under the framework of 'Cool-Earth Partnership,' a new initiative of the Japanese government to assist effort of countries seriously affected by climate change," the JICA Resident Representative said.

Yasuo Fujita, Chief Representative of JBIC in Dhaka, said the New JICA would provide comprehensive assistance to developing countries by undertaking a broader range of aid instruments, namely, technical cooperation, concessional loans and grant aid in an effective and efficient manner.