(Excellencies,) ladies and gentlemen,
I would like to express my sincere appreciation for efforts exerted and cooperation extended by all those who have made contributions to holding this seminar.

In my remarks to you, I would like to introduce evaluation of official development assistance (ODA) of Japan, especially activities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, focusing on policy and program-level evaluation, feedback system and collaboration with partner countries.

In the first place, I would like to stress the importance of ODA evaluation. In recent years, domestic and international environment surrounding international development aids has been rapidly changing. In Japan particularly, severe economic and financial constrains demand increased efficiency and effectiveness in Japan's ODA. Meanwhile, the role of ODA evaluation in building more efficient ODA implementation system is becoming increasingly important.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan has been evaluating ODA since 1981, and this has considerably contributed to improvement of ODA. The further improvement in methods of ODA evaluation is obviously required and the Ministry has been making continuous and comprehensive efforts toward this end.

In this connection, I would like to touch upon policy and program-level of ODA evaluation. In response to a variety of views on ODA evaluation voiced in the recent years, the Ministry has been developing process of policy and program evaluation, in addition to systems to strengthen feedback, among its endeavors. The Ministry focuses on the policy and program-level evaluation, while JICA and JBIC place their emphases on project-level evaluation, as they are in charge of implementation and management of individual projects.

A study on methods of policy and program-level evaluation was commissioned by the Ministry in FY2000. There is no internationally established method in evaluating ODA on the policy and program levels, and various donor countries and international aid organizations are in search of more appropriate procedures. Japan also is faced with a necessity of developing a reliable evaluation method. In this study, therefore, the evaluation practices of Western donor countries and international aid organizations were surveyed and Japan's alternatives were sought.

This study presented the following recommendations:

1）	Clarify in advance objectives and expected results of policies and programs,
2）	Illustrate in a chart strategic objectives of policies and programs and actions required to achieve these objectives, by which relations of "ends-means" can clearly be determined,
3）	Select indicators necessary to measuring achievement of objectives and monitor the indicators without interruption, and
4）	Carry out ex-post evaluation to reflect its results into future review of country-assistance program and strategy.

In FY2001, the Ministry also conducted policy evaluation, namely evaluation of Japan's ODA for Bangladesh, Nicaragua and Vietnam respectively.

Now, I would like to talk about the Ministry's feedback system of ODA evaluation. In order to ensure fairness and objectivity of ODA evaluation, the Ministry established in December 2001 the Wise-men Committee for ODA Evaluation Feedback as a private advisory body to Director-General of Economic Cooperation Bureau. This committee, consisting of 6 members who expertise development assistance or evaluation, examines results of ODA evaluation studies commissioned by the Ministry and draft of measures prepared by the Evaluation Division of the Bureau to feed back evaluation findings and recommendations into planning and implementation of ODA. Its conclusions are reported to the Ministry's Internal Feedback Liaison Meeting on ODA Evaluation chaired by Director-General of Economic Cooperation Bureau which makes final decisions of those measures and follows up their implementation.

In case of the evaluation of Japan's ODA for Vietnam, this procedure of feedback has been just recently taken. Recommendations in each development sector, which have been mentioned in this seminar by the evaluation team, will be taken into consideration, during and after on-going review of the country-assistance policy (program) for Vietnam, whether to be introduced in Japan's future ODA towards Vietnam.

Feedback to the recipient countries should not be neglected. That's why we are gathering here in this hall today to learn the results of the evaluation study from the Japanese team and listen to comments from Vietnamese side.

Lastly, I would like to emphasize the importance of collaboration between donor and partner countries for ODA evaluation. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan held Tokyo Workshop for ODA Evaluation in 2001. It was participated by 15 Asian countries including Vietnam together with international aid organizations such as the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and UNDP. Last year on 13-14 November Japan hosted the second workshop.

Participants reached a common understanding that in implementing ODA effectively, a transparent ODA system which allows both the participation of all concerned parties, including the beneficiaries in partner countries and maximizing of development outcome, is required, and that the role of monitoring and evaluation becomes increasingly important to achieve the common international development goals. The importance of the collaboration between donor and partner countries for evaluation including participatory joint evaluation as well as harmonization of evaluation criteria and procedures among donors was also recognized. The real value of evaluation should be assessed by the impact of the feedback of the evaluation for improvement of present programs and formulation of future aid policies. Participants shared that partner countries should be involved in the process of the feedback of ODA evaluation, and the feedback of evaluation should be utilized in the process of policy-making, strategy formulation and monitoring of ODA. The need for capacity building in partner countries was also found crucial. These efforts will enhance the usefulness of the ODA as well as the accountability to the people not only in donor countries but also in partner countries.

What I mentioned right now is major results of the Second Tokyo Workshop on ODA Evaluation. In order to make the third workshop which is supposed to be held this year more fruitful, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan has commissioned a study to deepen its understanding of the current situation and conditions of ODA evaluation in some Asian partner countries.

We are very keen to develop and enhance collaboration for ODA evaluation between Japan and Vietnam in particular and with other partner countries taking part in Tokyo Workshop for ODA Evaluation. Having said that, I hope today's seminar be a step towards this end.

Thank you very much.