Tokyo: Address by Ambassador Kovač at the opening of the JICA Department at the University of Belgrade
The Department's programme envisages a series of lectures on the topic of modernisation of Japan, which will be held in the course of 2022, on the occasion of marking the 140th anniversary of friendship between Serbia and Japan.
On the Japanese side, the event was attended by Chargé d' affaires of the Embassy of Japan in Belgrade Tecuja Cubota, Chief Representative of the JICA Office in Belgrade Jiro Takeichi and Executive Director of the JICA Research Institute for Peace and Development Ogata Sadako Akio Takahara, and on the Serbian side, Rector of the University of Belgrade Vladan Đokić, lecturers from the Department of Japanese Language and Literature and other representatives of the University of Belgrade.
In the opening statement, Ambassador Kovač welcomed the opening of the Department in the year of anniversary of friendly relations between Serbia and Japan and stressed the importance of JICA's two decades long support for improving bilateral cooperation through development projects in various fields that, inter alia, contributed to citizens' prosperity.
Ambassador Kovač underlined a crucial role of modernisation of Japan at the time of establishing the relations with Serbia, owing to which an environment for advancement of new industries and technologies was created, and said that the principle of focusing on public education to support changes and growth was still present; Ambassador Kovač added that Serbia appreciated JICA's continuous efforts to contribute to the development and improvement of educational systems worldwide.