Japan to increase aid funding by 35% in five years

By Hiwote Derbew

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia- The government of Japan announced yesterday that it has planned to scale up finance sourced aid to Ethiopia that will be channeled through different development activities, by 35% with in the coming five years.

During a half day Ethio-Japan dialogue that was held at the Ethiopian Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (MOFeD), it was indicated that the fifth Ethio-Japan dialogue aims at reviewing the ongoing projects financed by the government of Japan Mr. Mekonen Manyazewal, State Minister of MoFED said that the dialogue created an opportunity to exchange views on specific bilateral issues to further strengthen and expand the development cooperation of the two countries.

According to Mekonen the dialogue also attempts to find out the program of the newly restructured Japan Development Assistance (ODA) policy.
He noted that development assistance is the heart of the new partnership for development set out in the millennium declaration. “Thus we have responsibility and obligations on both sides .We have a responsibility to create an environment in which aid can yield optimal results,” he said.
Mekonen stressed that the need, promote the private sectors to expand trade and investment relation of both countries.

The government of Japan decided to work more on three priority areas of which are investment and growth oriented sectors, human capacity and regional and district level capacity building. The cooperation also stipulated that it has started a new program called “one product for one village” a program for development of value added products in rural parts of the country.

In the policy dialogue both sides reaffirmed to promote the cooperation of the two countries priorities area i.e. a, food security, rural development, economy, infrastructure, water, education, capacity building and health.