To mark the 50 years of bilateral relations between Bangladesh and South Korea, the KOICA Bangladesh Alumni Association (KBAA), Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), and Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) held a tree plantation event at Shahid Dr Fazle Rabbi Park in Dhaka's Gulshan 1. As a part of a voluntary program to increase the consciousness of environmental protection, about 85 trees were planted in the rain garden zone of the park. DNCC Mayor Md Atiqul Islam, South Korean Ambassador Lee Jang-keun, Nasima Begum, Member of the Planning Commission and also president of KBAA, KOICA Country Director Kim Tae-young, Economic Relations Division Joint Secretary Masuma Akter, Korean Community President Yu Yong oh, and Korean Export Processing Zone President Jahangir Saadat were present at the event. Read: Japanese Ambassador joins KWE’s Bangladesh operations launching prog KBAA is a platform that bridges the gap between the two countries and deepens friendly ties. The total number of KOICA alumni, and government officials of Bangladesh who participated in KOICA-funded training programs, has reached more than 2,600 this year, reflecting the "multi-sectoral links" that have been established between Korea and Bangladesh over decades.  

An ICT-based smart Emergency Response Control Center (ERCC) supported by the Korean government through Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA ) is expected to begin its operation in Dhaka early next year. The project titled “Strengthening Ability of Fire Emergency Response (SAFER)” was launched in December 2019 with the participation of a group of Korean experts with a total project cost of US$ 8.35 million. The project is expected to reduce the fire risks and human and economic loss by strengthening Bangladesh’s fire and disaster emergency response ability, said the South Korean Embassy in Dhaka on Monday. Read more: It’s my strong hope to see free, fair election in Bangladesh: Ambassador Naoki While there was some delay in the project’s progress due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the first smart Emergency Response Control Center in Bangladesh is in its final stage.

South Korea, through Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), will start a programme Saturday to increase the capacities of Bangladesh fire service officials to ensure stable operation and efficient management. Five officials from Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defence will participate in the 14-day training in the southern half of the Korean Peninsula. The training in South Korea will help them understand the support system of the Emergency Response Control Center, and acquire the procedures and techniques for the operation of a comprehensive disaster prevention system. It will also help them enable a stable system operation and efficient management of fire service and civil defence and strengthen future cooperation in the area. Korea Information Systems Consulting and Audit will organise field visits to important sites and offices for a better understanding of Korea's National Emergency Management Agency. Finally, the Bangladesh officials will develop a country action plan to develop feasible measures to apply the knowledge, technology and experience learned to their workplace. Read: Fire Service control room landphones go out of order

Bangladesh is exposed to a multitude of hazards for which the local people of vulnerable regions require special attention to enhance their resilience against impacts of hazards through an inclusive resilience approach, says Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA). KOICA has partnered with a number of multilateral organizations and international non-governmental organizations to build community resilience and has been supporting the above-mentioned projects. It primarily aims to enhance resilience of the vulnerable communities from flooding, cyclones, storms, earthquakes, etc. that have been the cross-cutting sectors of KOICA. Read: KOICA to render pre-survey on introducing metro rail in Chattogram

A new project has been undertaken to empower out-of-school adolescent girls and young women with market-driven occupational skills, transferable skills and job placements with support from the South Korean government.On behalf of the government of Republic of Korea, Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), in collaboration with UNICEF Bangladesh, completed an implementation study by Korean experts.KOICA will provide US$ 6 million grant aid to UNICEF Bangladesh to implement this project (2022- 2025) in seven districts of Bangladesh, namely Barishal, Bhola, Mymensingh, Gazipur, Dhaka, Narayanganj and Chattogram, KOICA said on Monday. Also read: Dhaka, Tokyo to work together to resolve Rohingya crisisAn Implementation-survey Mission from South Korea visited Bangladesh from April 3 to 11, for designing the proposed project.The main purpose is to empower out-of-school adolescent girls and young women with transferable and market-driven occupational skills and earning.

A pre-survey mission from South Korea is visiting Bangladesh as part of the transport master plan and preliminary feasibility study for urban metro rail transit construction in Chattogram metropolitan area. The team will stay in Bangladesh till February 16, said the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) on Sunday. KOICA, in collaboration with Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority (DTCA), Road Transport and Highways Division (RTHD), Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges, launched the pre-survey for the two years project titled "Transport Master Plan and Preliminary Feasibility Study for Urban Metro Rail Transit Construction, Chattogram Metropolitan Area." Also read: KOICA celebrates 25 years of its presence in Bangladesh DTCA, under the Road Transport and Highways Division, will partner with KOICA to implement this project. The team will also visit Chattogram city's different road sections to see the current condition. After the field survey, the team will share the result on February 15, 2022, with Secretary RTHD. The main purpose of this project is to prepare for the basis for urban transport infrastructure according to the concentration of population, urban expansion, and traffic congestion. KOICA team participate kick-off meeting of the pre-survey mission with Nazrul Islam, Secretary of RTHD, including officials from RTHD and DTCA. Also read: KOICA for enhancing treatment of neurodevelopmental disabilities for children in Bangladesh KOICA would provide US$ 6 million grant aid to develop the master plan and basic plan. The KOICA expert team will have a series of discussions with all the relevant stakeholders, including Bangladesh Roads Transport and Highway Division (RTHD), Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority (DTCA), Chattogram City Corporation (CCC), Chattogram Development Authority (CDA), Divisional Commissioner's Office, Chattogram, Police Commissioner, Chattogram Metropolitan Police, Chattogram Port Authority, Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology, RHD, Chattogram. South Korean Ambassador to Bangladesh Lee Jang-keun and Deputy Country Director of KOICA Bangladesh Office Taehyun Kim had a courtesy meeting with Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader and briefed the plan. Kim hoped that this project will support the Bangladesh government in developing a master plan for mass transit and reducing traffic congestion in the port city.

Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) has celebrated 25 years of its operations in Bangladesh recalling how KOICA's projects helped the country grow and establish the pillars of Digital Bangladesh. State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak, South Korean Ambassador to Bangladesh Lee Jang-keun, Country Director, KOICA Bangladesh Office Young-Ah Doh, Additional Secretary, Economic Relations Division Md. Shahriar Kader Siddiky and Representative of the World Food Programme Richard Ragan spoke at the function held on Tuesday night in a city hotel. Read:KOICA for enhancing treatment of neurodevelopmental disabilities for children in Bangladesh The occasion showcased KOICA’s successful projects and milestones in its 25 years of journey in priority sectors of ICT governance, health and education aligned with KOICA’s three programs, namely, Enhance Efficiency of Public Service by establishing Digital Public System, Enhance Public health by providing Quality of Health and Medical Service and Develop Skillful Human Resource for Sustainable Development. Speaking on the occasion, State Minister Palak recalled KOICA's projects in the ICT sector since its operation which helped Bangladesh to establish the pillars of Digital Bangladesh. Ambassador Lee emphasized on how the Korean government recognizes Bangladesh as an important partner and endeavors to increase exchanges between the two countries.

Universities in Bangladesh will work to build capacities among the youth  for entrepreneurship and business innovation in partnership with the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA). Under the project universities will be able to set a link of a model curriculum through which students will get knowledge to be entrepreneurs and find out need-based business modules to build as their career. The Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship (ICE) centre of Dhaka University (DU) organized a consultation conference at Nabab Ali Chowdhury Senate Bhaban on Tuesday. Md. Rashedur Rahman, associate professor and founding executive director of ICE, gave a presentation about the journey of the project. Prof Md Akhtaruzzaman, Vice-Chancellor of DU and chairman of ICE, Young-Ah Doh, country director of KOICA, Derik Kim, project manager of the project management consortium, Heakyung Bae, consultant of the project, Prof Muhammad Anisuzzaman Talukder of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Prof  Khondoker Bazlul Hoque, vice chairman of ICE, among others, spoke on the occasion. Also read: KOICA for enhancing treatment of neurodevelopmental disabilities for children in Bangladesh Teachers from universities of Chittagong, Rajshahi, Shahjalal and Khulna joined the program using virtual platform while teachers and more than 700 students of DU, representatives from banks and financial institutions attended the program physically. An 11-member team of experts of the project management consortium (PMC) comprising Korea Polytechnic University (KPU) and Korea Productivity Center (KPC) is visiting Dhaka to conduct “Front-end Survey” and develop “Action Plan” with insights, experience and opinions of relevant stakeholders as part of the project from November 5-18, 2021 are also attending the program and sharing their survey experience. Prof Akhtaruzzaman said that the 17th goal of the SDGs in collaboration between Korea and Bangladesh will be strengthened. He emphasized implementation and revitalized the global partnership for sustainable development and hoped that this is just the beginning which will be continuing to make it more viable. Young -Ah Doh, Country Director, KOICA said that this is the first consultation aimed to create an environment to promote youth entrepreneurship in Bangladesh. She said universities can play a great role in entrepreneurship by sharing opinions, exchanging ideas and creating action plans. Also read: KOICA helps Bangladesh strengthen road maintenance, management system Derik Kim expressed his hope that this project will be able to bring all the stakeholder groups from govt., industry, academia and others in one platform to develop an effective entrepreneurship ecosystem in Bangladesh. The project under the Ministry of Education will be implemented by the University Grant Commission (UGC) and DU in partnership with the KOICA, other leading public universities, and relevant stakeholders.  The overall objective of the project is to improve the environment for potential youth entrepreneurs through the capacity building of Bangladeshi universities on entrepreneurship education. Some of the activities under the project include: curriculum development on entrepreneurship education; capacity development of faculties, professionals, and students; advocacy and awareness initiatives; entrepreneurial roadmap through research, and infrastructural development. "Capacity Building of Universities in Bangladesh to Promote Youth Entrepreneurship" under the Government-to-Government (G2G) modality has been already signed between the Government of Bangladesh and South Korean Government on January 31, 2021.

Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) has partnered with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to safeguard women and girls’ dignity and improve their menstrual hygiene in Cox’s Bazar district. The partnership agreement with a value of US$ 2,950,000 was signed by KOICA Country Director in Bangladesh, Youngah Doh and UNFPA Representative in Bangladesh, Dr. Asa Torkelsson at a ceremony held in the city on Thursday. Between 2021-2024, this partnership will support a variety of activities to improve the knowledge of menstrual hygiene and address the menstrual hygiene needs of women and girls in Cox’s Bazar. Read: KOICA takes project on road safety in Bangladesh through ITS A total of 17,160 adolescent girls, boys, female, and male caregivers in 12 targeted communities are expected to directly benefit from the programme interventions.

A knowledge-sharing webinar on strengthening statistical capacity of Bangladesh, focusing on indicators relating to the SDGs (sustainable development goals) was held virtually on Tuesday. Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) in collaboration with Statistics and Informatics Division (SID) and Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) under Ministry of Planning hosted the event. Challenges such as, production of disaggregated and frequent statistics by age, sex, disability and sub-national level, comparability of data, availability of baseline data, conducting a large number of new surveys, technical support availability for regular monitoring, modern technology, etc. still persist that calls for a more restructuring, the webinar emphasised. Young-Ah Doh, Country Director, KOICA Bangladesh Office, Mohammad Tajul Islam, Director General, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Muhammad Mesbahul Alam, Additional Secretary, Statistics and Informatics Division, among other officials of the government of Bangladesh joined the virtual event. Read: KOICA takes project on road safety in Bangladesh through ITS Bangladesh’s standing in big data usage has highly advanced, namely, smart national ID Card database, COVID-19 vaccine registration, population census 2011 database, E-Passport integrated with NID database, national household database, 100 million births registered electronically, etc.