Japan, despite reconstruction efforts following a devastating earthquake two years ago, will continue to support development efforts in Malawi, the Japanese Ambassador, Fujio Samukawa, has said.
Samukawa made the remarks in reference to the progress made since Malawi and Japan signed a K4.3 billion (about $11m) grant agreement in 2010 for the education sector.
“On August 21 2010, Japan exchanged notes with Malawi about a grant aid amounting to about K4.3 billion for the first phase of the education sector in the Central and Southern regions,” he said.
Currently, he said, Japan in a process of implementing the second phase as this project had led to the expansion of Mseche Community Day Secondary School in Lilongwe with additional facilities such as girl’s hostels, laboratory and library.
Malawi’s education sector has been benefiting from Japan under the commitments made at the Fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (Ticad IV) held in 2008.
The Japanese pledge, which comes at a time when its own budgetary framework for reconstruction has been expanded from $202 billion to $266 billion for FY2011-2015, will also result in the construction of teachers training center for secondary school teachers in Lilongwe.
Japan will hold the Fifth Tokyo International Conference on African Development, a summit held every five years, which it launched with African partner countries 20 years ago.
