JICA-EPU SEMINAR "60 YEARS & BEYOND: THE WAY FORWARD"

KUALA LUMPUR, June 28 (Bernama) -- Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Malaysia Office, jointly with Economic Planning Unit of Malaysia, organized a seminar “60 Years & Beyond: The Way Forward” on 18 May, 2017 in Putrajaya.

Year 2016 was the 60th year since the first technical trainees visited Japan from Malaysia in 1956, and Year 2017 is the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relationship between Malaysia and Japan. As a commemoration of those anniversaries, the Seminar intended to look back how Japanese Official Development Assistance (ODA) has been walking along the way to social and economic development of Malaysia and to explore the ways to widen the scope of future cooperation of the two countries.

At the seminar, Dato Yogeswaran of EPU and Mr. Orikasa of the Embassy of Japan both acknowledged the success of Japanese assistance and complimented JICA’s role in the development process.
 
A keynote speech and a video provided the background and characteristics of Japanese ODA and explained the basis for the success of the cooperation. Guided by Dr. Leon from Sunway University, a panel of 6 speakers then explored various themes of the development cooperation that ranged from industrialization, infrastructure development, waste management to human resource development, private sector and the importance in trade and investment and finally the future of the cooperation, which will likely to take the form of partnership, the next step beyond development cooperation and assistance.
 
Many top management participated in the seminar including those from Centre for Instructor and Advanced Skill Training (CIAST) and Malaysia Productivity Corporation (MPC), both of them have long cooperation history, as well as implementing agencies of on-going projects such as Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) and Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology (MJIIT). The fact that more than 60 of Ministries/Departments and universities participated in the seminar shows that many Malaysian related recognized the contribution of Japan to social and economic development of Malaysia and people-to-people exchange between Malaysia and Japan through training programmes under the Look East Policy built the foundation of this success. 

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