accepted trainees while giving priority to these countries' ownership. In fiscal year 2003, the government implemented technical cooperation projects for vocational capability development policy and vocational training through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in such developing countries as Paraguay, Uganda, Tunisia and Ecuador. Japan also accepted trainees from and dispatched experts to developing countries in this respect.

In the area of labour safety and health, together with exercising a technical cooperation project in Malaysia, Japan also conducts trainees' acceptance and experts' delegation to developing countries. In order to assist improving industrial competitiveness through human resource development, Japan has implemented cooperation in promoting small and medium enterprises and development of mineral resources. The recent assistance extends to the institutional establishment of industrial infrastructure, management skills, and cooperation regarding environmental and energy issues accompanied by industrialization. In the fiscal year of 2003, as a follow-up service for the 'centres of excellence (COE) comprehensive programme,' which was exercised for two years from 2000 to 2002, Japan sponsored a workshop to support the AOTS's training for ASEAN-registered COEs and to share these countries' good practice.

As one sphere of supporting Asian countries' market-oriented economic reforms, Japan has established "human resource development centers (Japan Centers) $ ^{11} $ " in these countries to train people in business practice. As of March 2004, Japan had opened Japan Centers in Laos, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Mongolia. In the labor area, Japan has implemented the "ASEAN-Japan Project on Industrial Relations" for the stabilization of labor-management relations in Asian developing countries, the "Project for developing human resources related to issues of personnel affairs and labor management in the Asian developing countries" for the improvement of enterprises' personnel and labor management capabilities, and the "Skills Evaluation System Promotion Program" for assistance in creating systems to evaluate skills of workers correctly.

## (4) Information Technology

IT is one of the most potent forces in shaping the 21st century. Because IT is an outstanding consumer-led technology, people are aware of the opportunities it affords and it is possible for the international community to achieve further development through the active utilization of IT. For this reason, all people, no matter where they are, should receive the benefits of the global information society and the elimination of the digital divide is an extremely important issue. At the Kyushu-Okinawa Summit in July 2000, Japan announced "Japan's Comprehensive Cooperation Package to Address the International Digital Divide." In the package, Japan pledged to spend 15 billion dollars on ODA and OOF over five years after the announcement. Since the private sector basically plays a leading role in the development of IT, it is assumed that most of the cooperation policies mentioned above will focus on cooperation through non-ODA such as investment finance, export finance, untied loans, etc. implemented by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), which supports private sector-based projects. Taking these points into account, Japan is allocating ODA cooperation to cooperation in non-commercial sectors, such as building infrastructure and human resources development in developing countries. Based on these concepts, Japan is advancing cooperation with the following four pillars expressed in the cooperation policies mentioned above: 1) intellectual contribution to policy and institution-building; 2) human resources development; 3) building IT infrastructure and networking; and 4) promoting the utilization of IT in development assistance. In order to advance the promotion of the utilization of IT and active formation of IT projects, Japan is strengthening policy dialogue with developing countries, pointing out the importance of IT in Country Assistance Plans, etc. and encouraging an environment in which it is easy to form IT projects.

In March 2003, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications took the leadership in offering the "Asian Broadband Project" to make Asia an information hub of the world. In regard to assistance to developing countries, the project called for (1) promoting projects utilizing information and telecommunications technologies, (2) stepping up production of projects through proactive policy dialogue with developing countries and (3) implementing projects targeting multiple countries. The project has been implemented since fiscal 2003. Japan has agreed on cooperation in Asian broadband development through policy dialogue with Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, the Philippines and others. Specifically, Japan has focused on joint experiments and research & development projects with ASEAN countries for promoting the introduction of electronic government, remote education and some other systems. Japan has also