India, Japan discuss cooperation in skill development initiatives at joint working group meeting

India and Japan on Wednesday took stock of their cooperation in the skill development initiatives.

The discussions were held in the third meeting of the joint working group (JWG) on specified skill workers (SSW).

The two countries signed a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) on specified skilled workers in January 2021 in order to promote the movement of skilled workers from India to Japan for employment on a contractual basis.

"During the JWG meeting, both sides took stock of the existing cooperation between India and Japan under SSW and concurred that there was considerable potential to boost the number of SSW workers from India to Japan," the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement.

"In this context, they held discussions on ways to further enhance the implementation of SSW programme by identifying challenges in the existing system and exchanging views on the way forward," it said.

The key issues discussed during the meeting included demand-supply matching, raising the number of test centres in India, expanding the sectors of implementation, raising awareness about the SSW programme in India and promoting the Japanese language in India.

"The Japanese side announced that in addition to the existing cooperation under nursing/caregiving, SSW will be also expanded to cover the agriculture sector in India," the MEA said.

It said the Indian side welcomed the announcement and called for expansion of SSW to other sectors also.