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

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.