JICA, UMS and Sabah govt launch two new programs

A8THE H0~\1:0 POSSaturday. June 15, 2013HOMEJICA, UMS andSabah govt launchtwo new programsBy Mariah DoksilKOTA KINABALU: Thesigning of the Record ofDiscussions (RD) of twotechnical cooperation betweenthe Sabah government,Universiti Malaysia Sabah(UMS) and Japan InternationalCooperation Agency (JICA)was held at Wisma Innopriseyesterday.The signing of the RD will bethe official kick-off of the twoprogrammes, namely, Projecton Sustainable Development forBiodiversity and EcosystemsConservation in Sa bah (SDBEC)and Integrated Biodiversity andEcosystem Management TrainingCourse.Director in the Ministry ofForeign Affairs, Sa bah regionaloffice, Mahruzahrin Maskan, saidthe ministry, as co-sponsor for theproject is very honoured that theSa bah government continues tocollaborate with them under thethird country training programmefor the second cycle."The collaboration betweenour ministry and JICA for thisprogramme is to support thesecond phase of the Borl\eanBiodiversity and EcosystemConservation (BBEC)Programme, which was thejoint technical cooperationamong the state government,Malaysian federal governmentand JICA under Japan's OfficialDevelopment Assistance (ODA)."In this second phase, with theobjective to improve the capacityand information disseminationin biodiversity conservation,the Economic Planning Unit(EPU) and JICA had earliercollaborated in the first cycle ofthe programme. This cycle endedin September 2012," he said.The Ministry of ForeignAffairs, Mahruzahrin added,has agreed to continue theprogramme collaboration withJICA in the second cycle ofcooperation from 2013-2017. ·In this new cycle, he said,the training course is designedto share experience gained inBBEC 1 with other parts of theworld such as Asean, the PacificIslands, South Asian and Africancountries.The Institute for TropicalBiology and Conservation (ITBC),UMS, one of Malaysia's renownedresearch centre in tropicalbiology and conservation, hasbeen tasked to undertake thetraining course."The Ministry of ForeignAffairs is truly gratefulthat Sabah ha.s given its fullcommitment to support theprogramme. In this regard,we would like to offer our deepgratitude to the Sabah stateagencies involved in this trainingprogramme such as the NaturalResources Office, Sa bah Parks,Sa bah Forestry Department andSa bah Wildlife Department," hesaid.According to the chiefadvisor of SDBC project, SuzukiKazunobu, SDBC is expected toachieve two outputs within thenext four years of the projectperiod, namely, capacity isdeveloped to realise a societyin harmony with nature inthe project sites and Sabah'sexperiences are sharednationally and internationallyfor biodiversity conservationand sustainable development.SDBEC is a followup of BBEC.a ten-year technical cooperationbetween Sa bah, UMS and JICAin Sabah.SDBEC will support theimplementation of the planand strategy developed underBBEC. The focus would beon the implementation ofLower Kinabatangan-SegamaManagement Plan, to develop andsupport the implementation ofManagement Plan of the proposedCrocker Range UNESCO's, Manand Biosphere Reserve and toassist in the implementation ofSa bah Biodiversity ConservationStrategy.The training will be jointlyconducted under MalaysiaTechnical CooperationProgramme of the Ministryof Foreign Affairs and ThirdCountry Training programmeof JICA on a 50/50 basis.The state government wasrepresented by Sabah statesecretary, Tan Sri SukartiWakiman, in the signing ofthe RD for SDBEC. While,chief representative of JICAMalaysia office, Kunihiko Sa to,represented JICA and deputyvice chancellor of UMS, Prof.Dr. Shahril Yusof (Researchand Innovation) representedUMS.The RD of Integrated. Biodiversity and EcosystemManagement Training Coursewas signed by the acting directorof ITBC, Charles Vairappan.The signing ceremony waswitnessed by Sukarti.

Sukarti (second right) witnessing the exchanging of the Record of Discussions