Japan earmarks grant worth 400,000 dollars to improve equipment of digitalizing Moldova's National Library

Chisinau, 14 July /MOLDPRES/ - Education, Culture and Research Minister Igor Sarov and the director general of the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for Europe and Middle East, Sakamoto Takema, today signed an agreement on grant for the project on improvement of the equipment on digitalization of the National Library (BNM) between the Moldovan government and JICA.        

Attending the online event were: the state secretary in the culture sector, Andrei Chistol, the resident representative of JICA Ukraine office, Sugimoto Satoshi, the director general of Moldova’s National Library, Elena Pintilei, etc.  

Minister Igor Sarov thanked the government of Japan for the constant support provided to Moldova in the field of education, culture and research. ‘’The pandemic of the COVID-19 virus proved the need of the existence of the digitized BNM’s collections, in order to provide the online access to visitors. Thus, the project on the improvement of the digitization equipments at the National Library of Moldova will contribute to the digitalization and preservation of the country’s historical, cultural and general interest resources available at the National Library and at partner institutions. The implementation of this project will allow enhancing the accessibility to these resources for citizens, through improving the equipment necessary for digitalization, indexation and conservation of resources, thus contributing to the improvement of the public services’ quality,’’ the official said.     

For his part, the JICA director general, Sakamoto Takema, expressed willingness to continue the cooperation relations between Moldova and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency. ‘’The agreement will create opportunities for the development of inter-human contacts through providing access to advanced information technologies in the field of digitalization of the books’ fund.’’    

As a result of the signing of the Grant Agreement, the government of Japan will provide Moldova with a grant worth 400,000 dollars for the purchasing of four scanners, including an automatic one, a semi-automatic scanner and a scanner for scanning big formats, 3 working stations adjacent to the scanners and a high-capacity server. Also, trainings of librarians will take place within the project.