IMF Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (OAP)

Japan-IMF Scholarship Program for Asia (JISPA)

Invitation of Expression of Interest
Tender of Partnership Universities (Closed)

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is inviting graduate schools of Japanese universities to express their interest in a tender to select “partnership universities” which will host scholars under the Japan-IMF Scholarship Program for Asia (JISPA) starting in September/October 2011¹ for possibly five or seven successive annual intakes.

The JISPA is funded by the Government of Japan and administered by the IMF Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (OAP). The program aims to contribute to institutional capacity building in economic policymaking to promote sustainable growth in developing economies in Asia and the Pacific region through training junior government officials of key economic agencies, such as central banks and ministries of finance, economy, or planning in target countries.² Since its inception in 1993, over 360 officials have graduated from the program.

Around 30-40 government officials each year will be awarded scholarships to study for one-year or two-year Masters Degrees in macroeconomics or other relevant fields at several approved Japanese universities (the “partnership universities”)³ where all the courses are taught in English. The JISPA provides the partnership universities with funding for tuition fees, additional teaching expenses, administrative fees, and other relevant expenses.

As the countries covered by the program are making significant progress in economic development, their needs are evolving and sophisticated while facing many challenges from rapidly changing economic circumstances. Particular importance is therefore attached to universities with a demonstrated familiarity with the policy issues relevant to government officials of the target countries in the contemporary world. Each university should have a core macroeconomic oriented element, and two-year programs should provide further specialized courses reflecting its own strength emphasizing one or more of the areas below:

• Macroeconomic formulation and public finance
• Central banking and monetary policy
• Financial market policies

Interested universities are invited to submit a completed form of the expression of interest (attachment) to the address below either by fax or email no later than September 15, 2009.

Requests for Proposal documents shall be sent to the interested universities from August 31, 2009 with the due date for full application submission by February 28, 2010. The selection of the partnership universities will be made by the middle of May 2010.