Japanese agency supports Chinese reform
( 2002-07-11 10:09 ) (1 )

Japan's Official Development Assistance (ODA) programme has supported China's implementation of its reform and opening up policy and has helped promote mutual understanding between the Chinese and the Japanese for the past two decades, officials said.

"China and Japan are indispensable co-operative partners," said Yukihisa Sakurada, resident representative of the Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA) in China.

The JICA, established in 1974 as a governmental agency under the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is aimed at contributing to the economic and social development in developing countries.

JICA, now responsible for the technical co-operation aspects of Japan's ODA programmes, opened its office in China two decades ago.

Japan's ODA functions in China in the form of technical co-operation, grants and yen loans, Sakurada said.

China has received approximately 200 billion yuan (US$24 billion) since 1979 from the ODA programme, 92 per cent of which was given in the form of yen loans, according to statistics of Sakurada's office.

The yen credit is mainly given for the construction of infrastructure such as highways, railways and airports, and sewage systems in China.

The Japanese grants were used for education for Chinese ethnic minorities, health care, medical treatment and environmental protection.

"We help the recipient country train professionals through technical co-operation," Sakurada said in a recent interview.

JICA began its work with China's Ministry of Health in 1991 to eradicate polio in China where more than 9,600 people were struck by the disease in 1989.

A total of 130 Japanese experts in polio eradication were sent to China in a decade and 66 Chinese doctors went to Japan to receive training. JICA also helped to train over 10,000 medical workers in China, Sakurada said.

The indigenous polio virus vanished in China in 1994 and no cases have been seen in the country since.

Sakurada said the anti-polio project was a big success for the two country's co-operation in the medical field and they are now working together to control and prevent Hepatitis B.

The ODA programmes are not unilateral actions, Sakurada said. "It is work for both the donor and the recipient countries," he said. JICA also invites some 300 Chinese young people to pay a month-long visit to Japan for a friendly exchange with Japanese youth.

The organization also helps send young Japanese between the ages of 20 and 39 to work in developing nations.

Around 70 Japanese volunteers worked in China in 1999. Most of them served as nurses and teachers in the country's landlocked regions.

"We hope such co-operation will enhance mutual understanding so that the two sides can exchange views," he said.