Japan government to provide Rs. 423 million grants for JDS scholarship

Kathmandu, Aug. 29

The Japanese government is going to provide grant assistance worth about Rs. 423 million (454 million Japanese yen) to the Nepal government under the Human Resource Development Scholarship (JDS) project.

Secretary of the Ministry of Finance (MoF), Dr. Ram Prasad Ghimire and Japanese Ambassador to Nepal, Kikuta Yutaka, signed the letter on behalf of their respective governments on Wednesday at a programme organised at the MoF in Singha Durbar.

Under the scholarship programme, competitive young officers of the Government of Nepal will get the opportunity to study at various universities in Japan for two years at Masters's level, and three years at PhD level. The scholarship programme, which has been available since 2016, has already benefitted 165 students, and under the new agreement, an additional 22 students will receive scholarships for their studies.

Speaking after signing the agreement, Dr. Ghimire expressed his belief that the scholarship programme would enhance the capacity of Nepal's civil service. Mentioning that the knowledge and skills acquired by the civil service employees would improve the delivery of public services and contribute to the socio-economic development of Nepal, he said that it would contribute to strengthening the bilateral relations between Nepal and Japan.

Ambassador Kikuta expressed his belief that the JDS graduates would have a significant impact on the development of Nepal and would further strengthen the long-standing cooperative relationship between the two countries.

Officials from the Ministry of Finance, Japanese Embassy in Kathmandu and officials from JICA Nepal were also present at the signing ceremony.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 30 August 2024.