2025

Collaborative Program between WB and JICA - Assessing and Managing Debt-Related Fiscal Risks

From February 7th to 28th, 2025, IIMA participated in a training program organized by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the World Bank (WB). The training program invited 33 trainees, officials from ministries of finance and central banks of 29 developing countries in the Pacific, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, to Japan. The training program, a collaboration between JICA and WB, has been held since 2016, and IIMA has been involved in its planning and operation from the beginning.

The training included lectures and case studies by the WB on identifying and managing contingent liabilities of a country, such as bankruptcy of state-owned enterprises and government guarantees. Also, lectures were done by JICA, an insurance company, and the Japanese Ministry of Finance on disaster and earthquake insurance. The trainees also traveled to Kobe and Awaji Island, where they visited the Disaster Reduction and Human Renovation Institution and the Hokudan Earthquake Memorial Park. During lectures there, they learned about various methods of procuring reconstruction funds after the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake and about the support provided by the national government to local governments. In addition, IIMA gave two lectures on the Fiscal Investment and Loan Program and the Current State of the Japanese Economy.

During the training period, there was always an active exchange of opinions between the lecturers and the trainees, and it is hoped that the trainees will use the knowledge they gained in this training to promote policies for sound public finance and debt management in their home countries.