The purpose of our country's international cooperation is to contribute to the peace and development of global society and to secure the safety and prosperity of Japan through the cooperation activities. Japan has built up high reputation and confidence from abroad as a consequence of our aids at the best timings and our keeping promises without fail. Our ODA in the field of harbors in particular has contributed to the significant developments of counterpart countries by taking their policies and maturity levels into full consideration. For instance, in the case of Port of Colombo in Sri Lanka, port plan by Japan which made the most of an ascendancy of the site as a transshipment port, has resulted in its 30^th world rank in terms of container handling volume(in 2007). The port plays a significant role as a fundamental infrastructure of Sri Lanka's economic growth.
　Recently, in addition to the public sector leading efforts, so-called "Public Private Partnership" efforts which are for public sector to promote private sector's involvements have been made. Such activities of private companies in developing countries are beneficial not only in their economic growth but in their enhancement of employment opportunity, transfer of private technology, acceleration of trade and investment, and so on, all of which are direct and new development effects on the countries. The feature of this month spotlights new trend of the international cooperation, bearing in our minds that the efforts are also beneficial for a donor country.