TEHRAN — The Iranian Energy Ministry and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) signed a joint final evaluation report on the Japanese technical cooperation for the ongoing Energy Management Promotion Project in Tabriz, East Azarbaijan Province here on Wednesday.

Director general of Iran’s Energy Efficiency Office Seyyed Mohammad Sadeqzadeh and JICA Final Evaluation Team Director Hiromi Chihara inked the report.

The four-year project on energy management promotion was initiated in March 2003 with the participation of Japanese experts from JICA and their Iranian colleagues from the Energy Ministry.

The main purpose of this project is to enhance energy management in the industrial sector by providing necessary theoretical and practical training programs at Iran’s National Training Center for Energy Management (NTCEM).

JICA experts have been dispatched to Iran for long-term and short-term cooperation, and 11 Iranian experts have participated in training courses in Japan so far.

A training center has been built in Tabriz and a combustion furnace pump unit, a fan unit, an air compression unit, and other necessary equipment have been installed at the project site, the Azarbaijan Higher Education and Research Complex in Tabriz.

The evaluation report studies the achievements of the Japanese technical cooperation in five aspects: relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability of the project. The project will continue until March 2007.

Hiroshi Kurakata, the resident representative of the JICA Iran Office, told the Tehran Times on Wednesday, “Energy management is a very important factor for the industrial sector not only from the aspect of cost competition in the world of trade but also from the environmental point of view. “Japan is the pioneer country in the field of energy efficiency, and I hope JICA has contributed to this transfer of technology and boosted the expertise of Iranian engineers.”

Japan imports eleven percent of its oil from the Islamic Republic of Iran.