In an effort to reduce costs, the Foreign Ministry has decided in principle to use local companies to build schools overseas with official development assistance grants, starting in fiscal 2007, the ministry said Monday.
Local companies will be used from the design stage as it will cost less to employ them than Japanese construction companies.
With the government in the process of cutting spending, the ODA budget has been reduced and the ministry therefore hopes to cut the cost of building schools overseas by more than 30 percent annually, on average, by fiscal 2011.
The total cost of a pilot project conducted in Senegal in fiscal 2006 was 57 percent less than similar projects that did not utilize local firms. It was also confirmed there were no concerns with safety and other aspects of quality.
Building schools is said to be simpler than constructing other buildings, so the ministry believes there should be many cases in which the design can also be left to local companies.
However, due to high-technological requirements, Japanese designers will be used as before for schools that double as evacuation sites for natural disasters such as floods or earthquakes.
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20070227TDY02003.htm
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment