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.

To mark the 31st anniversary of Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), a tree plantation campaign with the slogan ‘Go Green, Protect the Planet’ was held on Thursday at Bangladesh Korea Technical Training Centre (BKTTC), Mirpur. Young-Ah Doh, Country Director, KOICA Bangladesh Office, Md. Mahbubur Rashid Talukder, Director, Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training, Md. Lutfar Rahman, Principal, BKTTC and Executive Committee of KOICA Bangladesh Alumni Association (KBAA) joined the programme. As a part of the voluntary programme for social responsibility, to increase mass awareness about tree plantation, more than 100 teachers and students of BKTTC enthusiastically joined the plantation programme. The objective was to engage the youth who will play a leading role in conserving the environment and raise awareness of an environment- friendly surrounding necessary for a better world.

The government will conduct a feasibility study of metro-rail in the port city of Chattogram with the help of Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), said Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader. “Our ministry has taken steps to fulfil the expectation of the residents of Chattogram as per the directives of the Prime Minister and the work of feasibility study will begin,” he said. The minister came up with the information while talking to reporters after a meeting with a delegation of KOICA and South Korean Ambassador to Bangladesh Lee Jang-keun. Also read: Metro rail milestone: Last segment of MRT-6 line installed Thursday “The government has taken a project of Tk 77 crore and the Korean government will provide Tk 51 crore as grant. Already a delegation of experts arrived here to survey the project and they’ll exchange their views with the authorities concerned in Chattogram from February 8 to February 12,” he said. Under the project, a coordinated transport plan will be prepared and the work on the feasibility study of a mass transit line and metro rail will start, said Obaidul. “The work on feasibility study will be completed next year,” he said. The issues relating to metro-rail projects for other large cities was discussed at a meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) held virtually with Ecnec Chairperson and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair on January 4. Also read: Dhaka Metro: The dream project now demands foolproof security “The Prime Minister said not only in Dhaka, the metro-rail project should also be there in Chattogram. Prepare a design for the metro-rail project for Chattogram Airport to Chattogram Railway Station. Later, we should go for designs for metro rail projects in large cities where there’re big airports,” said Planning Minister MA Mannan while briefing reporters after the meeting. The minister hoped that metro rail projects would be taken for other large cities in the future. “We, on part of the Planning Commission, will also encourage city corporations to design such projects,” he said.

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.

Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) in collaboration with the government of Bangladesh and NGO Affairs Bureau granted total 11 government and non-government officials master’s scholarship for 2021.  The Pre-Orientation on ‘KOICA’s Master’s Scholarship Programme 2021 and knowledge sharing webinar’ was held on Thursday virtually.  Young-Ah Doh, Country Director, KOICA Bangladesh Office along with the scholarship awardees, master’s alumni and KOICA’s partner organizations joined.  The event included introduction of KOICA’s Scholarship Program to the participants in attendance to avail the opportunity of studying in Korea that is fully sponsored by KOICA.  It also comprised of two knowledge sharing sessions presented by master’s alumni of 2019, whereby their first-hand experience gathered in Korea were highlighted.  KOICA’s Fellowship Program essentially aims to enhance human resource capacity of Bangladesh’s institutions and in turn contribute to its socio-economic development to achieve its 2041 vision.  This year, KOICA is offering total 9 programmes in Korea’s renowned universities, namely, Ewha Womans University, Hallym University, KAIST, Kyungpook National University, Korea National University of Education, Korea University, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul National University and Yonsei University, under which total 11 officials were selected after meeting the required eligibility criteria.  The sectors the candidates will major in include, gender, climate change, social economy, agriculture, finance, e-Government and public management, SDGs, etc.  Speaking on the occasion, KOICA’s Country Director said more than 90 Bangladeshi government officials have been awarded Master’s degrees from Korea till date.  She hoped the number increases in the coming years and the returnees are able to act as a bridge between Korea and Bangladesh to further strengthen its friendly ties.

Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) Bangladesh on Thursday held an information-sharing meeting virtually on a project titled “Improving the reliability and safety on national highway corridors of Bangladesh by introduction of ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems)”. The overall project aim is to make road transport infrastructure of Bangladesh more safe, reliable, and sustainable; use ICT for better, efficient and effective traffic management; enhance the institutional capacity of RHD for road and traffic management and discuss the statement of work, project scope, timeline, deliverables in the project and future implementation plans with the Roads and Highways Department (RHD). Also read: KOICA helped establish pillars of Digital Bangladesh: Zunaid palak KOICA will support a budget of $8.9 million from 2020-2023 for establishment of ITS master plan, architecture and standard, implementation of pilot project, capacity building of RHD, RTHD and other relevant organizations of the government of Bangladesh. Young-Ah Doh, County Director of KOICA said the transportation sector is the one of Korea’s development priority areas for Bangladesh. Through this comprehensive support from Republic of Korea, Bangladesh can develop road and safety master plan along with establishment of effective road management system which will reduce time and accidents for much-needed improved road conditions in the country, said KOICA. Also read:KOICA unveils multi-component cooperation aimed at youth entrepreneurship Md. Nazrul Islam,  Roads Transport and Highways Division secretary, and Md. Abdus Safur, Chief Engineer of Roads and Highways Department, laid emphasis on close partnership with KOICA. The Secretary said they have been working relentlessly to achieve the targets of Vision-2021, UN Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 and the goal of 2041, said a media release. He also said this is a dream project for Bangladesh as ITS would be implemented for the very first time. He requested to prepare a time-bound action plan to achieve the project goal. Read KOICA provides online training on eye disease prevention for Ophthalmologists in Bangladesh

State Minister for ICT Division Zunaid Ahmed Palak has said KOICA’s different bilateral projects in ICT sector since its operation in Bangladesh remarkably helped Bangladesh to establish the pillars of 'Digital Bangladesh’.  He was addressing a function held in a city hotel on Thursday evening.  Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and KOICA Bangladesh Alumni Association (KBAA), jointly celebrated KOICA’s 30th anniversary titled "Deepening Bilateral Ties between Republic of Korea and Bangladesh for LDC Graduation." Chairman of parliamentary standing committee on Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Saber Hossain Chowdhury, MP, Fatima Yasmin, Secretary, Economic Relations Division, Lee Jang-keun, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to Bangladesh, Monzur Hossain, MP, President, KBAA and Chairman, Rupali Bank Limited and Young-Ah Doh, Country Director, KOICA Bangladesh Office were present. 

The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) will support a budget of $7.5 million from 2020-2024 for infrastructure, developing entrepreneurship education module and building capacity, research and advocacy in Bangladesh. It will help strengthen the network and relationship among stakeholders of the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Bangladesh. KOICA Bangladesh organised a meeting for the project entitled “Capacity Building of Universities in Bangladesh to Promote Youth Entrepreneurship” held virtually on Wednesday (March 31, 2021) due to Covid-19 current condition. Also read: KOICA holds de-briefing seminar on capacity building for OSH This project is expected to improve the environment for potential youth entrepreneurs through the capacity building of Bangladeshi universities on entrepreneurship education. Doh Young-Ah, Country Director of KOICA Bangladesh, mentioned the importance of an effective entrepreneurial ecosystem for Bangladesh’s development journey. The project will combine the best practices and experiences of South Korea and Bangladesh to address socio-economic challenges and opportunities through entrepreneurial initiatives. Also read: KOICA supports Mugda Hospital with ICU, medical supplies in COVID-19 response Professor Dr. Md. Akhtaruzzaman, Vice-Chancellor, University of Dhaka, welcomed the initiative and expressed his cooperation to implement the project successfully to improve the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Bangladesh. Derik Kim, project manager, and chief consultant, Korea Productivity Center, on behalf of the Korean Project Management Consulting (PMC) consortium comprising of Korea Productivity Center (KPC) & Korea Polytechnic University (KPU) team, made a presentation on the project scope, timeline, and deliverables, and highlighted the future implementation plans with the University of Dhaka. Derik Kim shared some of the components of the project, including space design and construction, curriculum development and entrepreneurship education, overseas training on entrepreneurship for faculty members and relevant government officials, seminars, hackathon, thematic session, Bootcamp, entrepreneurship contest winner’s capacity building, and community mapping, etc. Also read: KOICA to help strengthen Bangladesh's road maintenance, management system Faculties, students, employees, relevant officials from different government organizations, policymakers, regulators, startup community, and others will be the beneficiaries of this unique University-led project. The meeting's objective was to share the overall project aim like improve the overall ecosystem of entrepreneurship in Bangladesh through universities' capacity building to nurture the youth's potential minds, and discuss the statement of work, project scope, timeline, deliverables in the project and future implementation plans with the University of Dhaka.