Japan and Brazil have plowed the field but may have forgotten to sow the seed.
Top government aid officials of the two countries signed an agreement late last March to promote bilateral cooperation in providing technical assistance for the development of third countries in the developing world.
But 10 months after the signing of the Japan-Brazil Partnership Program between the world's largest single aid donor and the by far the biggest Latin American power, the program has yet to be put into practice, with no agreement on even a single project.