Japan assists career development of Sri Lanka Govt. executives  

Sri Lanka’s executive level public sector officials have been given an opportunity to further their career development by undergoing Master Degree Programmes in prominent universities in Japan.  

Japan is providing Human Resources Development Scholarships for the Sri Lankan public sector, the third framework of the ongoing grant aid programme which is to be extended from next year, the Finance Ministry announced today (Monday).

After considering the necessity of further career development of JDS fellows, the Government of Japan has agreed to offer scholarship for PhD programmes at most two slots per batch.

Accordingly, altogether 165 (15 per year) opportunities for Master Degree Programmes and 6 opportunities for PhD programmes have been provided under this scholarship programme, the Ministry said in a media release.

In order to facilitate these selected officials, the Government of Japan has agreed to offer a grant assistance of around Rs. 457 million (Japanese Yen 269 million) to Sri Lanka in 2020

This scholarship (JDS) programme was introduced in Sri Lanka in 2010 by the Government of Japan.

Accordingly, the First Framework (2010-2013) and the Second Framework (2014-2017) of this programme were successfully completed in 2013 and 2017 respectively.

The Third Framework (2018–2021) was started in 2018 to continue this programme for further period of four years.

Two Exchange of Notes between the two Governments and Grant Agreements between the Government of Sri Lanka and the JICA for the implementation of the Human Resources Development Scholarship Programme were signed today at the Ministry of Finance by Treasury Secretary S.R. Attygalle and Japanese Ambassador Akira Sugiyama. (BS)