Japan provides Rs. 275 m food aid support

Saturday, 10 October 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Benefit for WFP’s Emergency Program and School Meals Program in the north

The Government of Japan will provide food grant assistance to the value of Japanese Yen 240 million (approximately Rs. 275 million) to the Government of Sri Lanka through the World Food Program (WFP) to support its ongoing emergency program in Sri Lanka including the School Meals Program. The distribution of the food assistance will be supervised by the Government of Sri Lanka.

From 2012 to 2014, the Government of Japan provided food grant assistance amounting to Japanese Yen 500 million to the Government of Sri Lanka through the WFP in order to sustain the Schools Meals Program. Good nutrition is a major factor in the physical as well as mental growth of children and supporting this program is of much importance to the welfare of Sri Lanka’s future generation.

Under this food grant assistance, Japan will provide canned fish manufactured in the areas devastated by the Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami, which meets safety requirements, assisting greatly the local people there. The grant assistance will be mutually beneficial to both Japan and Sri Lanka. Japan hopes this assistance would strengthen the long-standing friendship between our two countries.

The signing of the grant agreement took place in Rome on 8 October between Kazuyoshi Umemoto, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Italy and Ramiro Lopes Da Silva, Assistant Executive Director, UN World Food Programme.