RIYADH, 27 February — In a major move to boost bilateral technical cooperation, Japan has plans to organize 100 major training courses for the personnel of various Saudi government agencies this year.
The courses to be conducted at different locations in Japan and fully sponsored by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) are designed to update technical skills of employees, according Kuniaki Nagata, JICA resident representative here yesterday.
Nagata said the JICA had sent invitations to the Ministry of Civil Service for nominating candidates from relevant government agencies for the courses, which would begin on April 10 and run until Dec. 9.
Referring to the areas of training in which the government agencies have shown interest, he said they included courses in clinical dentistry, computer database engineering, intellectual property rights, consultancy services for industries, remote sensing technology, environmental management technology in petrochemical sector and legal metrology.
He said a group of customs officers attended a major course in Japan on "customs evaluation and tips for the Saudi Arabia's accession to the WTO" recently. The course helped Saudi officials to deal with auditing operations in accordance with WTO standards.
On JICA's ongoing efforts to promote Saudi-Japanese cooperation, Nagata said the Japanese body had launched several joint projects in cooperation with 16 Saudi government agencies. They included the Civil Service Bureau, the Ministry of Education, the General Presidency of Girls Education and the General Organization for Technical Education and Vocational Training and the Saudi Consulting House.
The National Commission for Wildlife Conservation and Development, the Meteorology and Environment Protection Administration, the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs, Arab Urban Development Institute, the Ministry of Health, Saudi Arabian Standards Organization, the Saline Water Conversion Corporation, the Ministry of Agriculture and Water, the Ministry of Industry and Electricity and Saudi Electricity Company are also working jointly with JICA on several projects.
Tokyo, Nagata said, had raised its budget to SR40 million annually to implement these projects. In the human resources development sector, JICA has announced plans to expand its cooperation with the Ministry of Education and with the General Organization for Technical Education and Vocational Training.
He said that Japan had emerged as the top donor of Official Development Assistance (ODA) to Saudi Arabia.
