In time for the commemoration of the Philippines-Japan Friendship Month this July, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) launched this week its first photography competition in the Philippines dubbed “JICA and the Filipinos: Images of a Better Tomorrow.”
The photography competition aims to highlight stories, milestones, and significance of the partnership between JICA and Philippines and how JICA’s activities contribute to the lives of Filipinos.
“The Philippines has one of the richest visual arts culture in ASEAN. Through this photography competition capturing JICA-Philippines relations, we aim to tap into the creative skills and talents of young Filipinos to promote good will and understanding involving our development cooperation activities,” said JICA Senior Representative Aya Kano at the launch of the photography competition in the opening week of the 20th Eigasai (Japanese Film Festival) under the Japan Foundation.
The competition is open to Filipino non-professional photographers and students 18 years old and above. Photographs must be original and have not won in other competitions nor used for commercial purposes and other publications. Details of the competition are available here https://www.jica.go.jp/philippine/english/office/topics/170704.html.
Top three winners will each win a digital camera under a well-known innovative Japanese camera brand and nine runner ups will each get an external hard drive as prize. The winning photographs will be featured in the JICA exhibits, calendar and other publications.
“Engaging young Filipinos through photography is one way to highlight the meaning of JICA-Philippines relations to many Filipinos and how our projects are benefiting the communities,” added Kano.
JICA, the world’s largest bilateral aid agency, implements Japan’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) with partner countries like the Philippines. Since the 1960s, JICA has been supporting Philippine inclusive development through various development cooperation activities promoting sustainable economic growth, poverty reduction, and Mindanao peace and development. | End
About JICA:
The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is the executing agency of Japanese Official Development Assistance (ODA), which handles technical cooperation, ODA loans and investment, and grant aid, as well as cooperation volunteers and disaster relief programs. JICA is the world’s largest bilateral aid agency with its volume of cooperation amounting to about USD 21.2 billion for JFY 2015 and a world-wide network of about 100 overseas offices including the Philippines.
For more information on JICA and JICA Philippines’ activities, please log on to https://www.jica.go.jp/english and https://www.jica.go.jp/philippine/english/index.html. ### jica pr