Juba — A project to enhance and transform the South Sudan Radio and Television (SSR/TV) into a public broadcasting corporation yesterday commenced its work by holding its first Joint coordinating committee meeting.

The joint coordinating committee comprises of team of experts from the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) which is the government's agency for bilateral assistance, and the government of South Sudan's Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

The meeting discussed how the two partners can implement the 6.5 million dollars project which is expected to last until 2016. Briefing the press of the outcome of meeting, the Director General of Information, Mr. Mustafa Biong Majak said the project consists of job training for SSR/TV staff and provision of equipment to strengthen the two media institutions.

He explained that the training of the staff will be from the period of 2013 - 2014 and will be done mostly in Nairobi, Kenya. He as well disclosed that the media bill is on its second reading in the parliament and will be out in due course to help boost the public broadcaster.

The JICA's lead representative, Mr. Atshusi Hanatani said the meeting was a very good start towards enhancing public broadcasting in South Sudan. He said that the experts brought from Japan are fully equipped and will work hand in hand with SSR/TV staff to facilitate knowledge transfer of international standards of television and radio broadcasting. He further appreciated the commitment shown by the government of South Sudan towards the full transformation of SSR/TV into a public broadcaster.