AP govt to introduce Japanese language courses in 3 varsities

With the Japan government agencies and private companies showing interest in investing in Andhra Pradesh and joining the development of the state's capital, Japanese language courses are being introduced in three major universities in the state.

The state government has decided to introduce Japanese language courses in the three oldest and prestigious universities in the state -- Andhra University in Visakhapatnam, Acharya Nagarjuna University, Guntur, and Sri Venkateswara University in Tirupati.

"It will provide jobs to students, in the sense, Japanese investors are showing interest in Amaravati (upcoming capital) construction as well as bringing in investments in manufacturing and infrastructure," Parakala Prabhakar, advisor (communications) to Andhra Pradesh government, told PTI here.

"So, in order to work for the Japanese firms (they will need) Japanese language, Japanese interpreters, Telugu to Japanese or English to Japanese, there will be lot of demand for Japanese language skills in the near future," he said.

Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu visited Japan twice since he assumed office a year ago to woo Japanese investors and to seek Japan's cooperation in developing infrastructure in the state and the proposed capital city.

The state government decided to have a Japanese desk in AP and has selected a person, fluent in Japanese, to liaise with the Japanese agencies, Prabhakar, who was part of Naidu's delegation to Japan, said.

Japan government agencies like JBIC and JICA have expressed willingness to pick up equity stake in the company floated by the AP government to oversee the construction of its capital, named Amaravati.

"Lot of investment is expected from Japanese companies and Japanese government-owned institutions like JBIC and JICA, who had expressed their willingness to pick up stake, equity in the company which is going to oversee the construction of Amaravati," Prabhakar said.

Andhra Pradesh is building its capital city on a public-private partnership (PPP) model. It has gathered about 33,000 acres from farmers under its "land pooling" policy in the Vijayawada region where the capital is coming up.

Singapore government has prepared 'Master Plans' for the development of - capital region, capital city and seed capital.

Japanese companies would be part of the development of infrastructure and other projects in the proposed capital area, he said.

As a CSR initiative, Mitsubishi had recently said they would make a donation and create an endowment for Japanese studies in Andhra University, Prabhakar added.

With Japanese language courses being introduced in the universities, there will be Japanese scholarship, chair and other things, he added. "Those who acquire Japanese language skills will definitely have a lot of market," Prabhakar said.