Thrust on bilateral trade growth between Dhaka, Berlin

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FE Team | Published: June 25, 2012 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

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FE Report
Bangladesh German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BGCCI), the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and DEG - German Investment and Development Company, being member of KfW Banking Group Saturday hosted an event to mark the visit of Dr Guido Westerwelle, Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany in Bangladesh.
The German minister was accompanied by a high-level business delegation as well as high ranking officials of the German Government.
The excellent bilateral relation was clearly highlighted by the presence of all German Organizations at the venue.
The individual booths of the German organizations include- BGCCI, GIZ, DEG, Goethe Institute, Konrad Adeneuer Foundation (KAS), Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung für die Freiheit. This gave a platform for the German organizations to demonstrate their presence and involvement in Bangladesh.
The event made clear that the bilateral relation of Bangladesh-German over the years has been excellent and in this year of 40th anniversary the relationship between the two countries will be even more concrete further.
The invitees of the event were higher level officials from both private and public sector of Bangladesh. The event had its focus on strengthening the bilateral relations between Bangladesh and Germany through private sector and development cooperation, the economic growth, and their role to contribute to a balanced economic growth that considers responsibly social and environmental aspects as well.
The speech given by Dr. Guido Westerwelle highlighted the 40th anniversary of German-Bangladesh diplomatic relations and he wishes to further strengthen the excellent bilateral relations between the two countries. BGCCI President Mr. Shakhawat Abu Khair said, as Bangladesh German trade has flourished in recent years, BGCCI has grown with it and now it stands as the biggest bilateral business chamber in Bangladesh with 320 members. He emphasized on the visit of the Prime Minister of Bangladesh to Berlin, meeting with the Chancellor of Germany. The president of Germany reciprocated the visit, the first German President to come to Dhaka for 25 years and now the Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany visits us with his business delegation. Executive Director of BGCCI Mr. Daniel Seidl, have played to strengthen these commercial ties.
Ms. Promita Sengupta, Acting Country Director of GIZ, in her speech stressed on the topic Human Rights and the contribution of the German Government in this area.
The German Government through GIZ is supporting the project Improvement of the Real Situation of Overcrowding in Prisons in Bangladesh to improve the current situation in prisons. The paralegals trained by the project have so far been able to obtain the release of around 2000 prisoners who should not have been in prison. She also mentioned about the project Promotion of Social and Environmental Standards, supported by GIZ that is working in the RMG industry.
This industry provides work for more than 3.6 million people, mostly women, and it is the major source of foreign exchange earnings. GIZ is supporting non-governmental organizations that promote workers' rights. The NGOs have set up women's cafés, where textile workers can get a cup of tea, obtain legal advice on labor-related disputes or domestic violence, and can play an ingenious board game that teaches them about their labor. GIZ also provides technical support in other sector such as Governance, Health, Energy, Climate Change and Environment.
While GIZ provides technical cooperation on behalf of the German Government, KfW Development Bank and DEG provide Financial Cooperation. In Bangladesh, German Development Cooperation started to work when the country gained its independence in 1971.
Since then the German Government through KfW has provided more than 1.6 billion EUR in bilateral Financial Cooperation. In addition to that, DEG, a member of the KFW Banking Group has been active in Bangladesh over the last 3 decades providing long term financing directly to the private sector projects in power generation, telecom, finance sectors, textiles and other manufacturing areas.