Germany will now assist BD in six fields instead of 11

Syful Islam Germany is going to change its concentration area relating to development cooperation to Bangladesh, officials said Monday. From next year, the fourth-largest global economy will assist Bangladesh in six fields instead of 11 fields in which it had been cooperating for development. During the last ten years Germany had been providing Bangladesh with some 20 million euros as bilateral development assistance and nearly 8 million euros as technical cooperation every year. Germany provides development assistance to Bangladesh through the KfW banking group, the state-owned development bank, while it provides technical assistance through GIZ and the federal institute for geosciences and natural resources. Other than these the largest European economy also provides development assistance for project funding for the German non-government organisations (NGOs) active in Bangladesh. Officials said at present Germany helps Bangladesh in 11 fields in four priority areas - governance, energy, health, biodiversity and disaster prevention. From next year it will help Bangladesh in six fields - rule of law, particularly in justice, energy efficiency at the macro level, access to modern (renewable) energy for the poor, health system development, sustainable use of resources, and adaptation to climate change through infrastructure development or disaster prevention. Germany has recently sent a discussion note titled 'Input paper on the proposed concentration of development cooperation in Bangladesh' to the Economic Relations Division (ERD) for opinion of the government. A senior ERD official told the FE that Germany is changing its concentration area aiming at further extension of its development assistance to Bangladesh. Sources said the ERD has sent the 'discussion note' to the ministries and departments concerned seeking opinion on it. The discussion note will be the main agenda during the Bangladesh-Germany bilateral meeting on economic cooperation to be held in Dhaka next month. Germany has so far committed to provide 2.4 billion euros for bilateral financial and technical cooperation. Since 1978 the German development assistance is given exclusively as grants. Besides, it is contributing to the development cooperation of the European Union and other multilateral institutions which totally amounts to 4.4 billion euros for bilateral and multilateral projects and programmes in Bangladesh. Officials said for the period of 2010 and 2011 Germany has pledged 60.8 million euros of new funds for bilateral projects in health, energy and governance sectors. Considering Bangladesh's vulnerability to climate change the two governments have also decided to cooperate in projects relating to reforestation and maintenance of mangrove forests in coastal areas, increasing wetland biodiversity and restoring livelihoods in cyclone-affected districts. Recent data shows that the overall trade between Germany and Bangladesh in 2010 increased by more than 23 per cent compared to the previous year's 2.8 billion euros. In 2010 Bangladesh exported goods worth 3.35 billion euros to Germany while it imported goods worth 464 million euros. Bangladesh's export to Germany enjoys duty-free and quota-free market access under the 'everything but arms' scheme of the European Union.