Japan supports Thailand's HR development

BANGKOK, March 28 (TNA) - The Thai Cabinet has approved a new human resource (HR) development project focusing on enhancing the potential of personnel in advanced technologies and innovations in line with the government's Thailand 4.0 Policy, aimed to boost the country's industrial competitiveness and investment. Nattaporn Jatusripitak, an advisor of the Minister Attached to the Prime Minister's Office, told journalists that the Cabinet endorsed the new project at its weekly meeting at Bangkok's Government House on March 27. Nattaporn stated that Japan has supported the new project through the KOSEN National Institute of Technology (KOSEN), which has agreed to jointly set up a new institute with Japanese private firms and Thai educational institutes to produce premium-class specialized personnel in advanced technologies and innovations. Nattaporn explained that the allied parties will jointly develop a five-year curriculum for Thailand's vocational teachers and students in the higher educational level who will be trained at the jointly-established institute. Besides, about 3,500 scholarships will be granted to 500 vocational teachers and 3,000 students for their further studies in Japan with the 10 year-program to be sponsored by the Thai government, about 800 million baht of which comes from an earmarked state budget and the remaining 2.7 billion baht comes from a soft loan approved by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The advisor said that the Thai government will later sign another agreement with the Japanese government and the private sector, under which those who are granted the scholarships will be employed at Japanese firms. According to the advisor, the Japanese-Thai cooperation is mainly aimed to draw more Japanese investment projects into the Thai government-supported Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) with more Thai specialists employed. The advisor revealed that the Thai Ministry of Education has also tailored a 20-year vocational personnel development strategy, under which about 4.7 million vocational specialists in advanced technologies and innovations will be produced by 2036. (TNA)