End of development aid on the horizon
After four decades of cooperation between Switzerland and Bangladesh, there is an end of classical development aid on the horizon. To achieve the aim that Bangladesh becomes a middle-income country in the next 15 years, Switzerland raises its help.
According to investment bank Goldman Sachs, Bangladesh is among the “Next 11†countries that have the potential to become major economies.
“Our role is to support the country to achieve this goal,†Derek Mueller, head of cooperation of the Swiss embassy, told The Daily Star at the Switzerland Bangladesh Development Fair in Rajshahi on Sunday.
Bangladesh will keep being a focus country of Swiss development aid in the next years, Mueller said. He expects the annual budget of the fund to grow from currently $33 million to possibly $44 million by 2017.
The majority of the projects supported by the Swiss government will deal with the market and private sector development, local governance, skills development and technical vocational education and training.
At the two-day fair at Rajshahi University premises, more than 30 ongoing development projects funded or co-funded by the Swiss government were shown.
Hundreds of students and interested people came to see the stands and enjoyed a colourful cultural programme consisting of local music and dance but also of three Swiss movies.
The fair marked the last point of the one-year-celebrations to the 40 years anniversary of bilateral ties between Switzerland and Bangladesh.
“We are proud of two main principles that we have followed for the last 40 years,†said Swiss Ambassador Urs Herren at the opening ceremony of the fair.
“Over all these years, we have tried to build on-site capacities in order to strengthen our Bangladeshi partners.†Furthermore, Switzerland has always tried to form long-time partnerships, he said.
It is difficult to express the effects of four decades of development aid in complete statistics.
Over the last five years, Swiss-funded interventions that contributed 2 percent to 2.5 percent to total annual Official Development Assistance have reached a total of about 15 million people.
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