MONROVIA, 10 March 2016 – The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) is partnering with Komatsu, the Government of Japan, and the Booker Washington Institute, to further support vocational training for the heavy duty equipment sector in Liberia.

The Government of Japan has provided a contribution of 200 million Japanese Yen (approximately USD1.7 million) for this second phase of the project. The official signing ceremony, held in Kakata, the capital city of Liberia’s Margibi County, was attended by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dehpue Zuo; Deputy Minister of Commerce and Industry, Ellen O. Pratt; Ambassador Kaoru Yoshimura of Japan; Philippe Scholtes, Managing Director at UNIDO; and Harris Fomba Tarnue, Principal of the Booker Washington Institute.

“The project will help provide targeted training to both young people and the trainers themselves, and enhance their employability in key sectors, which in turn will contribute towards the consolidation of peace through the realization of social and economic development,” said Scholtes.

“We highly value the support UNIDO receives from the Government of Japan, and are glad to partner with Komatsu, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, and the Booker Washington Institute.” 

Ambassador Kaoru Yoshimura said that at the 2015 United Nations Sustainable Development Summit in New York, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stated that to promote the SDGs, Japan has established a new cooperation strategy entitled the “learning strategy for peace and growth”, which focuses on enhancing the quality of learning as well as supporting human resources development in the areas of industry, science and technology.  He expressed his respect for the efforts made by all those who worked so hard to bring this process forward. 

Deputy Minister of Commerce and Industry Ellen O. Pratt expressed the hope that the training centre hosted by the Booker Washington Institute becomes a centre of excellence, further strengthening partnerships with the private sector as the main employer of young people.

Through quality technical and vocational training, the project will support economic growth and reconstruction in Liberia’s mining, agriculture, agro-forestry and construction sectors. The training courses will be conducted in an existing vocational training centre of the Booker Washington Institute, which was established under the first phase of this project (2013-2015).

The project is one of several public-private development partnerships that UNIDO is implementing in cooperation with heavy duty equipment manufacturers. All these projects are under the umbrella of UNIDO’s Learning and Knowledge Development Facility (LKDF), a programme that promotes industrial skills among young people in developing countries by supporting the establishment and upgrading of local industrial training academies.