NU SEDS professor was trained in the program of the Japan International Cooperation Agency
On December 3 – 10, 2021, the faculty member of the NU SEDS, Zhanat Kappasov, assistant professor, was trained in the online program from the Japan International Cooperation Agency “JICA”, organized jointly with Mie University under the cooperation program of the Japanese government.
The training was aimed at developing advanced industrial human resources through Japanese-style engineering education in the countries of Central Asia.
Professor Kappasov shared his opinion with us after the training:
«I realized that the biggest difference between Kazakh and Japanese style of industrialization is in following. In around 16-17th century, Europeans brought fire guns to Japan. Then Japanese acquired that technology and replaced all Europeans in the manufacturing process. Japanese started own manufacturing process. They opened special institutes for math and physics to support the industrialization (lecture slides is attached). Unfortunately, in Kazakhstani steppes, even with the appearance of the fire guns, nomads did not learn that technology. There were no specialists who acquired that technology. As a result, the industrialization came from outside, and we didn’t open own institutes for supporting own industrialization. Since that time we don’t have that mentality. For example, the manipulator that has been shown in the recent world expo is not made in Kazakhstan, in fact it was not even programmed by Kazakhstani experts grown up locally.
I learned from Japanese industrial+academia professors that we need to build up that mindset of making technology localized in Homeland».
The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is the executing agency of the Official Development Assistance (ODA) of the government of Japan. Since its founding (1974), the agency has contributed to social, economic and human resources development in developing countries.
JICA is the world’s largest bilateral aid agency, operating in more than 150 countries and regions and with about 90 overseas offices.
