11 new Japanese volunteers arrive

30 June 2010, 18:00 PM

Diplomatic Correspondent

Eleven new Japanese Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV) have arrived in Dhaka to extend their cooperation in different sectors such as tourism, infection control, primary school education, handicrafts and basketball. The volunteers will work with government and non-government organisations for the next two years, said a Japan embassy press release yesterday. Since March 1973, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has dispatched some 1031 JOCVs to Bangladesh in various fields such as agriculture and rural development, forestry and fisheries, processing, maintenance and management, civil engineering and construction, health and hygiene, education, culture and sports. As many as 61 volunteers are currently engaged in various activities throughout the country, all of them fluent in Bangla language. While talking with the new JOCV members on June 23, Japanese Ambassador in Dhaka Tamotsu Shinotsuka hoped that the volunteers would fully demonstrate their talents and skills for the benefit of the people of Bangladesh.