The government of Japan has extended grant assistance to a programme which provides opportunities for young Cambodian government officials to study at graduate schools in Japan. Minister of Foreign affairs and International Cooperation Prak Sokhonn and Japanese ambassador to Cambodia Ueno Atsushi signed an exchange of notes on the extension of the Japanese Government’s Grant Aid of nearly $3 million, during a July 3 meeting.
The grant is provided for the implementation of the “Project for Human Resource Development Scholarship”. Since 2001, over 500 Cambodian government officials have studied in Japan under this project, according to Ueno.
Speaking at the signing event this morning, Ueno noted that Cambodia has been steadily developing over the past few decades, He suggested that there is a growing expectation among Cambodian citizens that the government will deliver good governance through phase one of the seventh-mandate government’s Pentagonal Strategy – Phase I, launched by Prime Minister Hun Manet in August 2023.
“I am hopeful that this scholarship programme will support Cambodia’s efforts to accelerate human resource development, and that this will, in turn, pave the way to Cambodia becoming an upper-middle-income country by 2030,” he said.
Ueno detailed how Japan and Cambodia are pursuing three new cooperation approaches in the areas of social infrastructure development, maritime connectivity and humanitarian demining action. He explained that Japan is willing to support Cambodia’s sustainable development and will work together with the Cambodian government to co-create social values and tackle common challenges in regional or international settings based on the two nation’s “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership”.
“The grant assistance reflects Japan’s strong commitment to advancing Cambodia’s socio-economic development, while further consolidating bilateral cooperation, under Cambodia-Japan Comprehensive Strategic Partnership,” said a foreign ministry press release.
