Japan has committed to providing a grant of approximately Rs423 million (equivalent to JPY 454 million) to Nepal under the human resource development scholarship (JDS) project.

Under this scholarship programme, selected young civil servants of the Government of Nepal will have the opportunity to pursue two-year Master's degrees and three-year PhD programmes at various universities in Japan.

Since its inception in 2016, the programme has enabled 165 Nepali students to pursue higher education. Under the new agreement, an additional 22 students will be awarded scholarships, a press note issued by the ministry of finance said.

Ram Prasad Ghimire, secretary of the ministry of finance, and Mr Kikuta Yutaka, ambassador of Japan to Nepal, signed the agreement at a programme organised in Kathmandu on Wednesday.

During the signing ceremony, Ghimire hoped that the knowledge and skills acquired by civil servants would improve public service delivery and contribute to Nepal's socio-economic development. He also shared confidence that the programme would strengthen the bilateral relations between Nepal and Japan.

Ambassador Yutaka highlighted the significant impact JDS graduates have made on Nepal's development and expressed his belief that the programme would further deepen the longstanding cooperative relationship between the two countries.