Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) – Professor Abdurahim Mannanov, who headed the Tashkent State Institute of Oriental Studies (TashGIV) for many years, was awarded the diploma of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan for his significant contribution to strengthening friendly relations between the two countries.

As the Ambassador of Japan to Uzbekistan Yoshinori Fujiyama noted at the awards ceremony held in Tashkent on 22 November 2019, Abdurahim Mannanov’s merit in the development of inter-university exchange between the two countries is high.

"At the initiative of Abdurahim Mutalovich, the Tashkent State Institute of Oriental Studies actively promoted the strengthening of scientific contacts with Japanese universities, including exchange of students and joint symposia with the University of Tsukuba and Tokyo University of Foreign Languages," said the Ambassador, noting that a number of Japanese people are present at the ceremony Students currently studying the Uzbek language in Tashkent

Yoshinori Fujiyama proudly emphasized that Uzbekistan is one of the countries in the world where Japanese language is actively taught. “As of May 2019, about 1 thousand 700 people studied in 15 educational institutions of Uzbekistan. Among them, students of the Institute of Oriental Studies speak a very high level of the Japanese language, which is evidenced by the fact that the student of TashGIV took 1st place at the 27th Republican Competition of Public Speaking in Japanese,” said the Ambassador.

At the ceremony, Professor Abdurahim Mannanov was congratulated by the Minister of Higher and Secondary Special Education of the Republic of Uzbekistan Inom Majidov on the well-deserved award. “This is a high assessment and at the same time evidence of how successfully the cultural and humanitarian ties between our ties are developing,” he said.

The Minister emphasized that today the Uzbek-Japanese cooperation in the field of higher education has a number of areas, including banking, finance, energy, archeology, tourism and others. The active phase of the development of cooperation in the field of training engineering personnel is also beginning, an example of which is such a joint project as the Uzbek-Japanese Youth Innovation Center.

“I hope that relations between universities in Uzbekistan and Japan will deepen and in the future will serve as the basis for the creation of joint higher education institutions. At the same time, let me emphasize that at the heart of all this, at the origins of our cooperation in the educational sphere were issues related to the study of the Japanese language in Uzbekistan. In fact, the study of the Japanese language, which was first begun in the very first years of independence of the republic, laid the foundation for all our contacts in many areas of education and science. This merit in Uzbekistan rightfully belongs to the Tashkent State Institute of Oriental Studies, where training for the study of the Japanese language was first started. And in the process of establishing the Japanese language as an independent direction in the education of our higher educational institutions, Professor Abdurahim Mannanov played a big role,” the Minister of Higher and Secondary Specialized Education emphasized.

Professor Abdurahim Mannanov himself, speaking with words of gratitude for the award of the diploma of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan, modestly noted that this was a surprise to him. The ceremony became a well-deserved honoring of the merits of a person who made a significant personal contribution to strengthening the Uzbek-Japanese friendship, and was noted for his work and high professionalism and with the awards of his homeland.