Project-type technical cooperation by JICA consists of three types of technical cooperation activities, such as the provision of equipment, the dispatch of Japanese experts, and training for counterparts, in an integrated manner during a several year project period. Project-type technical cooperation is intended to concentrate and achieve effective technology transfer. The implementation period of the Mexican Port Hydraulic Center Project was four years from July 1984 to June 1988, and technical cooperation was to be provided to the partner organization, the Research and Design Department of PHB of SCT.

(1) The following equipment was provided by Japan:

• • Experimental equipment such as irregular wave generators, wave height gauges for model experiments, and data recorders, in order to conduct hydraulic model experiments using irregular waves.
• • Wave gauges to carry out field wave observations and clarify the wave characteristics of the coast of Mexico.
• • Computer system for carrying out numerical simulations that contribute to the planning and design of port structures.

Buildings, water tanks, air conditioning system, and other auxiliary equipment needed to make full use of the equipment provided by Japan were developed with the Mexican side’s budget.

(2) Three Japanese long-term experts were assigned permanently during the project term, and short-term experts were dispatched as needed

As a long-term Japanese expert team, the following persons were stationed during the project period and they covered three fields (on-site wave observation study, littoral drift study, and hydraulic model experiment study):

• • Dr. Shoji Sato, former director general of the PHRI, was in charge throughout the project period.
• • Mr. Toshihiko Nagai was in charge for three years from June 1985 to May 1988.

In addition, as short-term experts, a total of nearly 20 experts were dispatched during the project period.

The Mexican side arranged for the establishment of offices, assignment of counterparts, assignment of typists, etc. for the activities of the Japanese expert team.

(3) Technology transfer through the provision of training to counterparts

In addition to technical transfer activities such as training and on-the-job guidance by long-term and short-term experts in Mexico, the counterpart engineers were invited to Japan every year during the project period, where they were accepted at the PHRI.

When providing technical guidance on-site in Mexico, Japanese experts made efforts to compile as many lecture materials and research results reports in Spanish as possible with the support of counterpart engineers. The collection of those materials became the textbooks for the third-country training course in the next stage.

Some of the counterparts invited to Japan had a long training period of up to six months, and it was not always easy for them to adapt to the different lifestyle and culture of Japan. However, thanks to the kind support of the researchers at the PHRI, the host organization, they were able to achieve the expected results of training in Japan.

The Mexico Port Hydraulic Center Project achieved the expected results and was completed at the end of June 1988 as scheduled. After the completion of the project, Japanese and Mexican governments worked together to spread the Japanese technology transferred to the Mexico Port Hydraulics Center to the neighboring Spanish-speaking Latin American countries for a period of 10 years. The international third-country training course was held at the Mexico Port Hydraulics Center. For the training course, the Spanish textbooks and research reports prepared during the project-type technical cooperation period were utilized.

In addition, while third-country training was underway in Mexico, a new Port Hydraulics Center Project was established between JICA and the General Directorate of Railway, Port and Airport Construction of the Ministry of Communications and Transport of Turkey (DLH) from 1995 to 1999. The project period was set for 5 years.

In 2014, 10 days of follow-up meetings on the littoral drift research, irregular wave model experiment facility maintenance, and numerical calculation program development were carried out at PARI in Japan.

It is worth noting that the Port Hydraulics Center project was also requested by the Turkish government.

In 2000, the Mexico Port Hydraulics Center was relocated to the suburb of Queretaro City, about 300 km northwest from the original site in the suburb of Mexico City, in accordance with the decentralization policy of the government of Mexico. During the relocation, the equipment provided by Japan was also relocated to the new site at the expense of SCT of Mexico. At the time of the relocation, the organization was also changed, and the Port Hydraulics Center was positioned as Coastal and Port Department of MTI under the direct control of the SCT, and its position in the administrative organization was greatly improved.

In November 2003, the PARI held a Japan-Mexico-Turkey Port Hydraulics Research Workshop at the PARI with the support of JICA. This workshop was held as a follow-up of the successful two Port Hydraulics Center projects with Mexico and Turkey. The purpose of this event was to invite researchers and technical officials in charge of the Port Hydraulics Center Project to exchange the latest information.

Photo 8 is a group photo of this workshop. From right to left in the front row are Ms. Dora Luz Avila and Ing. Jose Miguel Montoya, who were the counterparts of the Mexico Port Hydraulics Center Project. Next to them is Dr. Shoji Sato, who was the chief advisor of the project.

Based on the exchange of information at the Japan-Mexico-Turkey Port Hydraulics Workshop in 2003, preparation works were started to build a new framework for cooperation in research activities between the PARI and MTI.

In June 2004, Dr. Toshihiko Nagai was invited by the Institute of Transport Technology of Mexico to visit the Institute in the suburb of the Queretaro City, Mexico for about two weeks to provide the latest research information of the field in Japan and to discuss with Mexican engineers about the basic agreement framework of the future research cooperation. As a result of the meeting, it was decided that personnel exchanges between the two institutes would be active again in the future.

Since there were many port development projects in Mexico during this phase, the budget of the MTI seemed to be more ample than that of the Japanese PARI. In fact, travel expenses for subsequent personnel exchanges between the two institutes were covered by the Mexican side, including cases in which Japanese engineers visit Mexico in order to give lectures, and where Mexican engineers come to Japan to collect necessary technical information.

Since December 2005, the exchange between the two institutes has been active up to the present. Almost every year, researchers from the PARI are invited to Mexico to serve as training instructors. In addition, Dr. Jose Miguel Montoya and Ms. Dora Luz Avila also frequently come to Japan to collect information at the PARI and other organizations in Japan.

In the presentation by Dr. Jose Miguel Montoya at this seminar, he explained that Mexico continued a maintenance contract with Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. of Japan for the maintenance of the irregular wave generators provided by Japan in the 1980s. He also stated that the wave generators are still being used today and that he is working on the development of a new research facility equipped with Japanese serpent-type wave generators.