DUSHANBE, December 12 2012, Asia-Plus  -- Tajik President Emomali Rahmon yesterday met here with Mr. Kiyoshi Kodera, Vice-President of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

According to the Tajik MFA information department, the sides discussed issues related to bilateral cooperation between Tajikistan and Japan.

Many projects have been successfully implemented in Tajikistan under financial and technical support of Japan.

Mr. Kodera noted that Japans Government would continue providing support for socioeconomic development of Tajikistan in the future as well.

In the course of the talks, the sides also considered a number of international and regional issues being of mutual interest, the source said.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency is an independent governmental agency that coordinates official development assistance (ODA) for the government of Japan. It is chartered with assisting economic and social growth in developing countries, and the promotion of international cooperation.

JICA was established by the Law concerning the Independent Administrative Institution Japan International Cooperation Agency.  The current organization was formed on October 1, 2003 as outlined in the International Cooperation (Independent Governmental) Agency Act of 2002. Its predecessor, the (Japan) International Cooperation Agency (also known as "JICA"), was a semi-governmental organization under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, formed in 1974.

A major component of the comprehensive overhaul of Japan''s ODA that the Japanese government (Diet) had decided on in November, 2006 is the merger in 2008 between JICA and that part of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), which currently extends concessional loans to developing countries.

Since its completion on October 1, 2008, "New JICA" has become one of the largest bilateral development organizations in the world with a network of 97 overseas offices, projects in more than 150 countries, and available financial resources of approximately 8.5 billion U.S. dollars.

The reorganized agency is also responsible for administering part of Japan''s grant aid which is currently under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and so all three major ODA components—technical cooperation, grant aid, and concessional loans—are now managed “under one roof.”