November 4, 2016
Cheng Guoqiang, Director-General of the International Cooperation Department, Development Research Center of the State Council (DRC), China, and others visited JICA Research Institute (JICA-RI) on Oct. 12 and held discussions with JICA-RI Director Naohiro Kitano about the role of development think tanks.
The DRC was established in 1981 with the objectives of doing policy research on the domestic economy and advising the government. In recent years, interest in development aid has been increasing in China, and Chinese President Xi Jinping announced his plan to establish the new think tank, the Center for International Knowledge on Development (CIKD) to research international cooperation in September 2015 at the United Nations General Assembly. DRC collaborated with the Department for International Development (DFID) of the U.K., and with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to start to prepare for establishing the CIKD. Cheng paid his visit to JICA-RI to discuss the operations and organizational structure of development think tanks.
In the discussion, DRC introduced an overview of the CIKD and its future direction, and Kitano explained Japan's experience with development cooperation and gave an overview of JICA-RI.
Cheng and his delegation toured JICA-RI's library and the JICA Global Plaza, which encourages Japanese people to get involved with international cooperation.
"I was impressed with the changes in Japan's foreign aid during the past decade and with JICA-RI's collaboration with well-known researchers in Europe and the U.S.," Cheng said. "I would like to have even more interaction with JICA-RI in the future."
