Germany will provide Bangladesh 140 million Euros to support establishing a more reliable and efficient energy supply sytem.
It is a part of a total commitment of 211 million Euros under a bilateral technical and financial cooperation made at the concluding day of the two-day biannual negotiations on development cooperation between Bangladesh and Germany.
These funds will be used for the improvement and establishment of energy transmission lines and substations, said a press release issued in Dhaka yesterday.
Dr. Wolfram Klein, Head of the South Asia Division, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development led the German delegation to the negotiations while Abul Mansur Md. Faizullah, Additional Secretary, Europe Wing, Ministry of Finance led the Bangladesh delegation.
The funds will be made available in three priority areas “Renewable Energies and Energy Efficiency”, “Good Governance/Rule of Law/Human Rights” and “Adaptation to Climate Change in Urban Areas” to be implemented by BGR, Institute for Geosciences, GIZ, the German Development Agency and KfW, the German Development Bank.
Since 1972, Germany has contributed more than 2 billion Euros under the bilateral development cooperation with Bangladesh.
The German delegation complimented Bangladesh on its impressive economic development and improvements towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015.
The stressed on developing a post-2015 agenda for sustainable development represents a central issue for the development debate of the coming months and years.
Poverty reduction and sustainable development are significant challenges that need to be tackled by the whole international community on the basis of a new universal agenda.
In regard to creating conducive conditions for sustainable development the German side stressed the importance of a constructive and open environment that allows for the participation of all societal groups.
Bangladesh can be proud of the great achievements it has made in this area over the last few decades, the press release said.
The protection of human rights, transparency, favorable working conditions for NGOs, access to information and freedom of the media are essential for the development of a country, said the release.
