Arab News Japan 

TOKYO: The Japan International Cooperation Agency is planning to jointly organize the projects for cooperation with Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) in developing countries.

“Our goal is to mobilize necessary resources for development through having co-financing projects in developing countries, so we are focusing on partnerships with organizations such as the World Bank and the SFD,” Ms. Nakamura, JICA’s Senior Deputy Director, Middle East and Europe Department, told Arab News Japan.

SFD CEO Sultan Al-Marshad recently met with JICA President Akihiko Tanaka to discuss cooperation between the two parties.

“We actually signed a memorandum of cooperation in 2016, but hadn’t realized any actual cooperation yet,” Nakamura said. “So, from last year we had intense discussions and in December 2021, held a seminar to introduce the activities of our respective organizations. Based on that, we have been discussing what we can do as the next step, and then agreed on carrying out a staff exchange program with the Kingdom.”

Nakamura said the two sides are progressing in learning each other’s procedures before implementing concrete projects together. SFD personnel will visit Japan in November and afterwards JICA will reciprocate with JICA’s staff.

As for what kind of projects the relationship will target, this has yet to be determined, Nakamura says.

“We have not confirmed any concrete projects yet,” Nakamura said. “Our idea is to try and formulate a joint study or some project relating to climate change, an issue of a huge challenge, not only for developing countries, but also for the Gulf countries, so we hope we can produce a common agenda together.” 

More plans are under consideration to formulate projects with other Middle East countries.

“We have had a series of discussions with other partners in Gulf countries on cooperation in the field of education, waste management and so on,” Nakamura said. 

Nakamura also said that cooperation with Gulf countries such as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and UAE will be on a different basis from that of other developing countries.

“Our approach to Gulf countries is a little bit different from that of other developing countries, because Gulf countries are not “developing countries” anymore, so we have different schemes to co-operate with them,” she explained. “So, basically, we cooperate with Gulf countries on a cost-sharing basis by focusing on strategic issues for both sides.”