Interacting with journalists on Tuesday, Joe Hyun-Gue Country Director of South Korea’s development agency, KOICA, said Bangladesh was a “priority” country when it came to development cooperation.
KOICA supports Bangladesh through grants, soft loans and technical cooperation and the ongoing country strategy, 2016 to 2020, is mostly focused on health, education, transportation and ICT.
The country director invited suggestions to support in other areas in need.
He said they are ready to continue to work with its partners in Bangladesh to help the country achieve the SDGs and other development goals.
One of Bangladesh’s strong development partners, Korea opened its embassy in Dhaka in early 1975, more than a year after the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1973.
Later, Korean entrepreneurs came to Bangladesh to set up garment factories, many of whom are still active.
A World Bank development report said the boom of Bangladesh’s readymade garment industry that wheels its economy is because of initial training from Korean Daewoo Corporation in 1979 when Bangladesh had no modern industry.
The corporation teamed up with Bangladesh’s Desh Ltd and trained up its 130 newly recruited and educated employees who later left Desh to start their own clothing businesses for the industry to flourish.
The readymade clothes are now the largest export earners of Bangladesh.
KOICA was established in 1991 with an aim “to fight global poverty” and started working in Bangladesh in the same year.
But the office was opened two years later in 1993 when it dispatched a group of volunteers.
So far it has completed 24 development projects that include the first-ever cyber crimes investigation capabilities centre. It is currently building Bangladesh’s first-ever super-specialised hospital in Dhaka.
Development Specialist of KOICA Bangladesh Office Biswajit Kumar Sarkar presented the details of the partnership strategy with Bangladesh during the interaction.
He said KOICA wants to be a “champion” in contributing to achieve SDGs and promoting Bangladesh to a developed country by 2041.
Their annual budget is over $14 million, he said. The country partnership strategy outlines how Korea’s comparative advantage, financing and consulting services can support Bangladesh achieve SDGs.
Some of the ongoing projects include modernization of training institute for chemical industries, establishment of the first-of-its-kind national institute for nursing, establishment of the e-government master plan for digital Bangladesh and illicit drug eradication and advanced management through IT.
KOICA Deputy Country Director Go Ahreum, and principal programme officer Md Khalid Hossain were also present during the interaction.
Source:https://bdnews24.com/economy/2018/09/26/koica-ready-to-help-bangladesh-become-a-developed-country