News Briefs- (21-1-2019)

Sweden grants Tk 180m to develop BBS capacity

The Swedish government will provide SEK 20 million or Tk 180 million as grants under a programme to develop institutional capacity in statistics in Bangladesh. The programme aims at ensuring increased access to quality statistics for the society by supporting the position of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) as the central statistics institution. To this effect, Bangladesh and Sweden on Sunday signed a contribution agreement titled 'Institutional capacity development in statistics - a capacity exchange programme - between Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics and Statistics Sweden, 2018-2023' at the Economic Relations Division (ERD) in Dhaka. Farida Nasreen, Additional Secretary and Wing Chief, Coordination and Nordic Wing of ERD, and Anders Öhrström, Head of Development Cooperation, Embassy of Sweden, Dhaka, signed the agreement on behalf of their respective governments. The implementation period of the programme is from 2018 to 2023, according to the agreement. — FE Report

China to provide $72.57m in grants

China will provide grant assistance of RMB 500 million or approximately US$ 72.57 million to Bangladesh under an agreement on economic and technical cooperation between Bangladesh and China. The grant shall be utilized for the welfare projects in areas like disaster management, bridge construction and so on. Details will be stipulated in separate agreements to be signed between the two sides. Economic Relations Division (ERD) Secretary Monowar Ahmed and Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Zhang Zuo signed the agreement on behalf of their respective sides in the city on Sunday. — BSS