On June 13th, 2024, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Bendito dos Santos Freitas, signed a cooperation agreement with the Japanese Ambassador to Timor-Leste, Tetsuya KIMURA, for the 7th group of the Scholarship Project for Human Resources Development (JDS). The signing included an Exchange of Notes Agreement and a Grant Agreement with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). 
The JDS project, which began in 2019, has already benefited 35 Timorese officials, with 22 of them completing their master’s degrees in Japan. The new agreement will allow eight more national officials to continue their studies in Japan in the areas of public policy, administrative services, industrial policy, environmental policy and natural resources management as of next year. 
Human resources development, including in the context of Timor-Leste membership of ASEAN, is an extremely important area of cooperation, since human resources are the basis of a nation’s development and prosperity.