JICA has signed agreements with the governments of Sri Lanka  to provide grant aid to allow government officials fo earn master's degrees in Japan.

The agreement with Sri Lanka was signed inJuly.

The grants are being provided as part of the Project for Human Resource Development Scholarship (JDS), which was introduced in 1999 to help develop human resources involved in key development areas by accepting international students to Japan, and to build on the friendship between Japan and the partner countries.

So far 75 officials have been accepted  for programs at Japanese universities in public administration, public policy, public finance, regional development, economics, business management, environment and disaster management. In total 120 Sri Lankan government officials are to be trained during the cooperation period of 12 years in Japanese Universities. The agreement signed in July extended the current cooperation under JDS through a grant of 226 million Japanese yen.