Launch of "Hitachi-DST Scholarship Programme for South African Engineers"

Tokyo - Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE:HIT / TSE:6501) and The Department of Science and Technology, Republic of South Africa (DST) today announced the launch of a new scholarship training programme for South African engineers in Japan beginning in September 2009. Under the programme, Hitachi will invite young South African engineers to Japan for a five-month scholarship programme including on-the-job training at a Hitachi factory and visits to a Japanese power utility company.

The objective of the programme is to enhance the capacity of South African engineers who are currently engaged in the area of power utilities, in support of social infrastructure development in South Africa where electrical shortages are becoming a social issue. The Japanese government is also promoting the development of human resources in South Africa in line with the direction confirmed in May 2008 at TICAD IV (The 4th Tokyo International Conference on African Development), where the importance of human resource development in Africa was reemphasized. With this in mind, Hitachi hopes that this new programme will serve as a part of Japan’s contribution to capacity building in South Africa.

In 2007 and 2008, Hitachi received orders for boiler facilities for coal fired power generators in South Africa.

The DST will invite applications for the programme in South Africa at the end of January this year, and three successful candidates will be selected by the end of March. The selected engineers will start their training in Japan in September 2009 and stay until February 2010.