Professor Muhammad Yunus, the chief adviser, concluded his four-day official tour of Japan this morning and departed Tokyo for his home country.
“A flight of Singapore Airlines carrying the Chief Adviser and entourage departed Narita International Airport for Dhaka via Singapore at about 11:20 am (Tokyo time),” Chief Adviser’s Deputy Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad Majumder told BSS.
He claimed that the Chief Adviser attended about 20 events while in Tokyo, including a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba.
According to Azad, Prof. Yunus should arrive at Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 10:40 p.m.
Chief Adviser Prof. Yunus met with Japanese Premier Ishiba in a bilateral meeting on Friday, the third day of his tour.
In order to strengthen trade and economic ties between the two friendly countries, the two presidents agreed to sign an Economic Partnership Agreement between Bangladesh and Japan over the next few months.
The Japanese premier also announced a commitment of US$ 1.063 billion to Bangladesh for budget support and railway development.
The Development Policy Loan for Economic Reform and Strengthening Climate Change Resilience (418 million USD), the Loan for the Joydebpur-Ishwardi dual-gauge double-lane railway project (641 million USD), and the Human Development Scholarship grant (4.2 million USD) were the three exchange of notes documents that were later signed that day.
On the same day, the Chief Adviser spoke at the “Bangladesh Business Seminar,” where six Memorandums of Understanding on investment, economics, and other areas of cooperation were inked between the two nations.
Japan is experiencing a labor shortage, therefore earlier on Thursday, the two countries signed two Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) to improve the skills of Bangladeshi workers and make it easier for them to get jobs in Japan.
In the presence of Chief Adviser Prof. Yunus, the agreements were signed during a human resources seminar organized by the Bangladesh Embassy in Japan and held at Hirakwacho Chiyoda City in Tokyo.
In order to alleviate Bangladesh’s increasing labor shortage, Japanese companies and government had earlier in the program declared plans to hire at least 100,000 Bangladeshi workers over the following five years.
The Chief Adviser gave the keynote address at the 30th Nikkei Forum: Future of Asia the same day.
In a meeting with former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on the fringes of the Nikkei Forum, Prof. Yunus asked him to back Bangladesh’s application to join the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
In the meantime, Soka University honored Prof. Yunus with an honorary doctorate on Friday in appreciation of his contributions to global development and social innovation.
On May 28, Prof. Yunus, who was awarded the 2004 Nikkei Asia Prize, landed in Tokyo.
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