Japanese Ambassador Toshinao Urabe and Secretary of Foreign Affairs Albert F. Del Rosario signed and exchanged notes on the Japanese Grant Aid for Human Resource Development Scholarship (JDS) Project on June 28, 2011 at the Department of Foreign Affairs in Pasay City.
This grant aid provides a necessary fund up to 262 million yen (approximately 139 million pesos*) to cover the 9 th batch of JDS fellows, consisting of Filipino young officials from various governmental institutions, who will visit Japan for entering academic years 2011-2012.
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 2002-2011, the Government of Japan has allocated approximately 2.7 billion yen (approximately 1.4 billion pesos) for this 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 179 JDS fellows, including the batch of 20 scholars for academic years 2010-2011.
* PHP-JPY Exchange Rate = .5317 (2011 May average )
