Saito Mitsunori becomes new Chief Representative of JICA India office
Aug 28, 2021
New Delhi [India], Aug 28 : The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has announced the appointment of Saito Mitsunori as new Chief Representative of its India office.
He succeeds Matsumoto Katsuo who completed his tenure with JICA India after three years of service.
Mitsunori was earlier working as the acting Director General of Infrastructure Engineering Department at JICA.
Over the years, he has been responsible for projects and operations strategy under Official Development Assistance (ODA) programmes of JICA and has experience of working at the Africa and Middle East divisions too.
In addition, he used to work as a representative of India office from 2006 to 2010.
JICA works as a bridge between Japan and emerging countries, and provides assistance in forms of loan, grant and technical cooperation so that the emerging countries can strengthen their capabilities.
India is the largest development partner of ODA from Japan. Japan's ODA to India started in 1958 as the first recipient of Japanese ODA loan in the world. Since then, over 6,566 billion Japanese yen (about Rs 4.37 lakh crore) in ODA loans have been committed to India for more than 300 public projects across various sectors.
JICA has been implementing several initiatives to help India's development journey. There are various ongoing projects such as the railway projects of Dedicated Freight Corridor and High-Speed Railway, and building renewable energy system to promote sustainable development and growth in India.
