JICA chief arrives on Saturday

The JICA President Akihiko Tanaka is due to arrive in Dhaka on Saturday on a four-day visit.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 12 June 2014, 02:43 PM
Updated : 12 June 2014, 03:20 PM

It has been 11 years since a JICA President last visited Bangladesh in March 2003.

The visit comes at a time when Dhaka and Tokyo have embarked on new relationship following Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to Japan last month.

Japan is Bangladesh’s largest development partner. The amount of total grants and aid reached $11 billion last year.

During Hasina’s visit, Japan pledged an additional aid of $ 6 billion in the next four or five years with Dhaka and Tokyo launching a “comprehensive partnership” to deepen relations.

Tanaka will meet the Prime Minister and Finance Minister, deliver a lecture at Dhaka University, and visit JICA projects during his stay till June 17.
He would also witness the signing of its 35th package of the overseas development assistance or “soft loan” to Bangladesh, according to JICA Dhaka office.
The amount, indicated earlier, would be about 120 billion Yen equivalent to $ 1.18 billion.
Tanaka was Professor of International Politics at the Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies and at the Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, the University of Tokyo.
Just before assuming the JICA president’s post in April 2012, he was Vice President of the University of Tokyo.
He obtained his bachelor in International Relations from the University of Tokyo in 1977 and his PhD in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1981.
Tanaka’s specialties include theories on international politics, contemporary international relations in East Asia, and Japan’s foreign policy.
He has several books and articles in Japanese and English, including the New Middle Ages: The World System in the 21st Century (Tokyo: The International House of Japan, 2002).
He was awarded the Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon by the Japanese government for his academic achievements in 2012.
JICA’s Dhaka office was established in 1974, two years after Japan established diplomatic ties with Bangladesh.
Its assistance comes regularly as grants, aid, technical assistance, and soft loans.