The transition of the National Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine (NPTU) to HD quality in the next two and a half years was announced by the head of the NPTU board, Zurab Alasania, during a press conference dedicated to the Ukrainian-Japanese cooperation project to develop the potential of the Ukrainian public broadcaster, which took place yesterday, June 21, at Ukrinform. He also said that the result of this project will be the creation of a control room at the National Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine, from which four studios will be managed.  "Thanks to this cooperation, we will be able to switch to HD quality, which Ukrainians have been waiting for a long time. The equipment that remained on the NPTU balance sheet after the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 will give us the opportunity to release our news in HD, and I hope that this will be already from autumn. And a little later, thanks to the equipment that will appear as a result of cooperation with Japanese partners, we will be able to switch to such quality and our entire evening prime time", - noted Zurab Alasania. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Ukraine, Shigeki Sumi, said that the idea of such cooperation was born a long time ago, and added: "Now is the time when Ukraine needs to develop open, honest and transparent public broadcasting. Such broadcasting cannot have a place for propaganda, it must objectively and independently cover events". The press conference was also attended by the head of the NHK International group, Atsushi Miyao, and the head of the JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) project, Kenichi Hashimoto. They talked about the fact that this cooperation has several aspects: technical - providing equipment to improve the NPTU product, and educational - providing expert assistance and training on covering emergencies and creating educational programs. Atsushi Miyao said: "I hope this project will be a significant step in the development of Ukrainian public broadcasting". It is also planned that a group of employees of the broadcasting company will go to Japan in the fall to learn about the work of the Japanese public broadcaster NHK. This training is provided within the framework of the Ukrainian-Japanese cooperation project, the agreement on which was signed on June 9, 2016, and which entered the implementation stage in January 2017. Let us remind you that in the spring of this year, the European Union stated that it is ready to invest several million euros in the NOTO newsroom, and Sweden - 3.5 million euros in the development of branches Source: UA:First