Tokyo To Speed Up Work Of International Science And Technology Centre In Moscow

Tokyo is intending to speed up the work of the Moscow Science and Technology Centre. According to Monday reports of the Japanese press, this will be done to prevent the "migration" of scientific and technical experts from the former Soviet republics who are attracted by high incomes in the countries suspected of supporting international terrorists. The Centre was established in 1992 by Russia, the United States, Japan and the European Union in order to assist scientific and technical experts in difficult conditions which followed the collapse of the Soviet Union. Since then, Tokyo has donated $52M to fund the projects launched within the framework of the Centre. Following the September 11 terror acts in the United States, the Japanese government has decided to speed up the Centre's activities in order to prevent the "leakage of brains" from the CIS republics (the Commonwealth of Independent States.) All details of the aforementioned speeding-up process remain as yet unclear.