KOICA Country Director Young-Ah Doh on Sunday said that the Korean development agency would assist Bangladesh to graduate “smoothly” from the LDC by 2026 and help the country to achieve the SDGs by 2030.
She said KOICA is also committed to assist the government of Bangladesh to accomplish its 8th Five Year Plan (2021 -2025).
She said KOICA would focus on three main themes which are Green New Deal emphasising on the transition to a low carbon economy- state agenda of the President of Korea, digitalization-emphasising resolving the digital divide between regions having access to technology, and lastly, Integrated Official Assistance- emphasising to solve fundamental problems together instead of standalone projects.
She made the comment in a message marking the 30 years of KOICA’s establishment.
The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) was established as a government-funded agency dedicated to grant aid programmes on April 1, 1991. It started its journey in Bangladesh in 1993 with a mission to catalyze socio-economic development for the people of Bangladesh.
KOICA Bangladesh Office implements development projects with the government, UN Agencies and NGOs, and arranges capacity building invitational training programmes for government officials and dispatches World Friends Korea (WFK) Volunteers for accelerating local development.
“KOICA endeavors to combat poverty and support sustainable socio-economic growth of partner countries. By doing so, KOICA establishes and strengthens friendly ties with developing countries,” the country director said.
This year 2021 is a momentous year for Bangladesh, the KOICA and the Korean government.
She said KOICA is celebrating its 30th anniversary to further deepen the existing bilateral ties between Korea and Bangladesh for LDC Graduation. Korea is observing its historic membership with the United Nations.
At the same time, Bangladesh is celebrating the birth centenary of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and golden jubilee of independence of Bangladesh- two milestones of the country.
Since its establishment in Bangladesh, KOICA said, it has contributed a total of $164 million, of which Health sector accounted for maximum 30 percent of total budget, followed by Education (29%), Governance (17%) and Science, Technology and Innovation (11%).
The organisation is currently implementing over 20 development projects under its Country Plan (CP) with approximately $20 million grants per annum: ICT (innovation), Public Health, Education (TVET) and Transportation.
KOICA’s projects are aligned with its Country Plan focusing on three specific programmes.
Enhance Efficiency of Public Service by establishing Digital Public System - In this program, KOICA is supporting ICT Division for developing e-Government Master Plan in achieving Digital Bangladesh along with launching the digital municipality service system for digital Bangladesh.
The organisation has also strengthened the digital investigation capabilities of the Criminal Investigation Department of Bangladesh Police to effectively combat emerging cybercrime & conventional crimes all over Bangladesh, said the country director.
KOICA is supporting the Department of Narcotics Control (DNC) and Bangladesh Fire Service & Civil Defence (FSCD) for developing IT-based management and reengineering their business process.
It has established a Narcotics Information Management System (NIMS) for DNC which covers narcotics court case management, narcotics licensing management, narcotics sample analysis management, operation management and drug addicted patients’ management.
KOICA is establishing a state-of-the-art digital Emergency Response Control Center (ERCC) which is capable of extracting real time location data and information of the disaster for immediate response and rescue.
Enhance Public health by providing Quality of Health and Medical Service - Under this program, KOICA undertook bilateral, multilateral and NGO collaborated projects.
The agency is working with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for establishing Eye Health Care Units and improving Maternal and Child Health.
KOICA has established the National Institute of Advanced Nursing Education - first MSc course in Nursing - for supporting the national initiative of the government of Bangladesh to enhance the teaching capacity of nurse teachers in Bangladesh in order to increase health services for people by producing quality nurses.
Furthermore, it established Korea-Bangladesh Friendship Hospital in Savar, which is providing health services to the pro-poor.
3. Develop Skillful Human Resource for Sustainable Development -
In this program, KOICA is working with the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) to support the national initiative of the government of Bangladesh to strengthen the capacity of Technical Training Centers (TTC) by increasing the quality of vocational education across the country.
The KOICA has already modernised Technical Training Centers in Dhaka, Chattogram and Rajshahi to produce highly skilled manpower to meet the increasing demand of both local and overseas job markets.
The organisation is also improving the capacity of TTC teachers by establishing the Teacher Training Centers to promote demand-driven competency-based skill training, which ultimately enhancing opportunity of employment for the graduates.
The KOICA has also established 100 IT labs in secondary schools in Dhaka district to strengthen ICT capacity for computer teachers and provide the learning opportunities for students on basic computer literacy and ICT education.
KOICA is also collaborating with University of Dhaka to Promote Creative Youth Entrepreneurship in Bangladesh, said the country director.
“Along with the programmatic support, over 2,300 government officials attended training and Master’s program in Korea to share important technical skills and knowledge as well as to build capacities for sustainable socio-economic development,” she said.
KOICA also deployed over 600 volunteers in Bangladesh who contributed in nursing, social welfare, and agriculture for helping people in need while exchanging cultural values.
