The government of Japan has extended cultural grant of 49 million yen (approx. US $ 0.6 million) for “The Project for the Improvement of Audio Visual Equipment of the National Institute of Folk and Traditional Heritage”, Lok Virsa.
The official notes for the cultural grant assistance were signed and exchanged here Monday at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Statistics between Hiroshi Oe, Ambassador of Japan to Pakistan, and Dr Waqar Masood Khan, secretary, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Statistics, while Khalid Javed, executive director, Lok Virsa, was also present.
Earlier in 1993, Japan extended the cultural grant aid of 41 million yen to Lok Virsa to set up audio-visual equipment at their media centre. The current aid will be utilised for the improvement of this audio visual equipment at the Lok Virsa. The new audio-visual equipment is the latest digital technology of high definition which will be useful for the preservation of folk and traditional heritage of Pakistan.
Japanese cultural grant assistance is a part of the Official Development Assistance (ODA), provided to contribute to the promotion of cultural and higher educational activities and preservation of cultural heritage in developing countries.
Speaking on the occasion, Hiroshi Oe stated that this grant aid will surely be helpful towards the preservation of the folk and traditional cultural heritage of Pakistan.
He expressed the hope that this project will contribute to further strengthen the existing friendly relations between the people of Japan and Pakistan.
“Lok Virsa is playing a significant role in the preservation and promotion of the national heritage of Pakistan. The media centre developed by Lok Virsa performs the task of preserving and disseminating Pakistan’s folk arts, oral traditions and regional culture. The audio and video cassettes, CDs, VCDs and DVDs produced regularly by the media centre are considered to be the most authentic source of cultural information among the public,” he said.
However, for lack of state-of-the-art technology, it is difficult to retain those recordings in the analogue format for a longer period of time. To this end, the latest high definition technological equipment granted by the Japanese government will greatly help the audio-visual documentation and conservation of all the recorded data in a digital format, the Ambassador maintained.
Hiroshi Oe said, this grant will contribute to the efforts to carry out the national task of documenting the Pakistani arts and crafts, cultural traditions, and musical rituals. The current cultural grant assistance will also be very effective for the further promotion of cultural relations between the two countries.
The Japanese government has granted approximately 720 million yen to Pakistan under this program since 1982. On the occasion of the 60th Anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Pakistan and Japan, this grant will further strengthen the existing diplomatic ties between Japan and Pakistan and enhance understanding on the cultures and traditions between the peoples of both countries, he said, adding “We will continue to build the socio-economic and cultural bridges between the two nations.”
