The Government of Japan has allocated a grant of US$400,000 for improving the digitization equipment of the National Library of the Republic of Moldova. The grant agreement was signed by Minister of Education, Culture and Research Igor Sharov and Director General of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for Middle East and Europe Takema Sakamoto on July 14, IPN reports, quitting a press release of the Ministry of Education.

Following the signing of the grant agreement, the Government of Japan provides financial assistance for purchasing four scanners, three scanner workstations and a high-capacity document scanner.

The minister thanked the Government of Japan for the constant support offered to Moldova in education, culture and research. “The COVID-19 pandemic proved the necessity of digitizing the collections of the National Library so as to offer the users access online. The project to improve the digitization equipment of the National Library of the Republic of Moldova will contribute to digitizing and preserving historical, cultural and general interest resources of our country that are available at the National Library and at partner institutions,” stated Igor Sharov.

For his part, Takema Sakamoto expressed his readiness to continue the relations of cooperation between Moldova and JICA. “The treaty will create opportunities for developing inter-human contacts by offering access to modern information technology in the digitization of the book stock,” stated Takema Sakamoto.