Wing-7: Europe

Europe wing is headed by an Additional Secretary. At present, this wing comprises of 3 (three) Branches: (1) Europe-I Branch; (2) Europe-2 Branch; (3) Europe-3 Branch, and 4 (four) Sections (Section 2, 3, 4 and 5).

Europe Wing deals with the bi-lateral and multilateral economic cooperation including mobilization of resources from the countries in the European region. Bangladesh receives major chunk of the support from the European Countries and EU in the form of Grant.

The major Development Partners (DPs) are as follows:

European Union (EU)

Bilateral Relationship between the Government of Bangladesh and European Union (EU) has been continuing since 1973. It is one of the largest DP of Bangladesh. The average amount of development assistance to the Government of Bangladesh provided by this organization is about € 70-80 million per annum. All EU assistance to Bangladesh is provided as grants. The Memorandum of Understanding titled ‘Multi-annual Indicative Program (MIP) 2011-2013’ signed between the two parties on 25 November 2010 which had committed to provide EU assistance of €198 million as grant and its implementation is about to complete. EU will no longer prepare any Country Strategy Paper for Bangladesh for the period 2014-2020. Rather, they already started the process for introducing the Country Programming for 2014-2020 in line with the present Planning Documents of Bangladesh. Accordingly, the EU Country Programming for 2014-2020 for Bangladesh focusing on three main following sectors is based on Vision 2021, Sixth Five Year Plan and corresponding policy documents of Bangladesh Government: (i) Strengthening Democratic Government and Human Rights (ii) Food Security & Nutrition (iii) Education and Skill Development.

United Kingdom (UK)

United Kingdom (UK) has been providing development assistance to Bangladesh since 1976. All the development supports of UK are in the form of grant. The UK Department for International Development (UKAID) is providing support to Bangladesh under a multi-year country strategy. In terms of grant statistics, UK is one of the largest bilateral grant donor to Bangladesh. The UK government has committed to provide 1.0(one) billion pound sterling to Bangladesh as grant under the current Country Strategy Plan 2011-2015. Priority would be given to good governance, social protection, health services, education services, poverty alleviation, climate change adaptation, and empowerment of women sectors for the utilization the fund.  

Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)

The assistance of the Swiss Government to Bangladesh is administered by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) under its Five Year Cooperation Strategy. The current cooperation strategy for Bangladesh (2013-17) focuses on the following areas:  Markets and Private Sector, Local Governance, Skill Development, Climate Change adaptation, and Gender equity. These programs will be implemented through a variety of partners including GoB, Civil Society Organizations, Private Sector, Research Institutes and other development partners through identified projects.

Russian Federation & other CIS (Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Georgia, Armenia, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova) Countries:

The bilateral relationship between the Government of Bangladesh and Russian Federation (former Soviet Union) has been continuing since 1972. Recently, Russia committed to provide 500 million USD both technical and financial support to the “Construction of Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant Project” in Bangladesh.

Moreover, the bilateral relationship between Bangladesh and Belarus has been initiated lately by signing a “Provisional Framework Agreement” and a “Joint Declaration of Intent” in order to import goods (works and services) from Belarus under several foreign trade contracts.

The Netherlands

The Royal Netherlands Government is providing development support to Bangladesh since independence. The assistance is provided in the form of Grants and Technical Assistance. At present, the Government of the Kingdom of Netherlands is giving priority to development and effective management of water resources sector of Bangladesh in providing their grant assistance. In recent past, they also provided their assistance in health and family welfare, rural electrification and primary education sector of the government. In addition to the on-going assistances, in recent times, Netherlands based ORIO Authority is providing 1.36 million euro for the Development Phase (Feasibility Study) of the project titled Rehabilitaion of Water Management Infrastucture, Bhola. Generally, ORIO authority provides 100% of the project cost for the Development Phase and 50% for Implementation Phase and Operation and Maintenance Phase as grant.

Federal Republic of Germany:

The Federal Republic of Germany has been providing Development Assistance to Bangladesh since 1972. Most of the supports of Germany are in the form of grants. Recently, for the first time German Governmetnt has committed to provide soft loan (45 million Euro or 468 crore Taka) to Bangladesh in addition to grants. Presently, the priority areas of the German assistance are the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency, Rule of Law/ Justice /Good Governance and Climate Change Adaptation to Urban Areas. KfW and GIZ are the two German institutions in Bangladesh through whom the German Government is providing the financial assistance and technical assistance respectively.

Newly emerged / Other European DPs

In recent time, three new DP’s have been started to provide financial assistance by offering loans in the sectors like Power, Transport and Water Supply. These are:

1. European Investment Bank (EIB): In November 2013, a loan agreement signed between Bangladesh and EIB to finance the “Power System Expansion and Efficiency Improvement Investment Program”. EIB has been for the first time inked the financing deal with Bangladesh and it is expected that it will enhance their domain through funding in many other projects in different sectors.
2. Agency Francaise De Development (AFD): AFD is a French public development finance institution and a bilateral Agency. In 2012, AFD has started its operations in Bangladesh and has signed a Credit Facility Agreement in January 2013 with the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh for a loan to support a Transport Project in partnership with Asian Development Bank (ADB). In the future, AFD will be reinforcing its financing towards the development of the urban infrastructures, such as providing drinking water, supplying clean and sustainable energy and the climate change adaptation strategy of the Government.
3. The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN): It is an alliance driven by the vision of a world without malnutrition. Gain supports public-private partnership to increase access to the missing nutrients in diets necessary for people, communities and economies to be stronger and healthier. With these views, recently GAIN extended their  support to Bangladesh by signing agreements in order to  implement two projects.  GAIN’s objective in Bangladesh is to reduce the burden of malnutrition through market- based programs through innovative and sustainable model that increases access to affordable nutrition foods among communities.

Other European development partners mostly provide assistance which includes loan, mixed and state credit under concessionary terms and supplier’s credit. This category includes Italy, Spain and Czechoslovakia. These countries had extended assistance in the past and no longer provide bilateral development assistance.

Structure of the Europe Wing:

Branch: Europe-I

This branch supervises branches one and two section (Section-2, 4) and look over the matters relating to the cooperation between Bangladesh and the West European countries/agencies.   It also supervises the coordination matter of the Europe Wing.

Presently, the Europe-I Branch is headed by a Joint Secretary. The main duties under this branch are as follows:

• Supervision of one branch and two sections.
• Matters relating to mutual Co-operation between Bangladesh and the following West European countries /agencies.       
  a) U.K. (b) France (c) Spain (d) Switzerland  (e) Czech (f) EU (g) Belgium  (h) Greece (I) Russia and CIS Countries (j) EIB (k) GAIN and (L) AFD.
• Holding and also attending inter-ministerial meetings for review of the progress of work of aided projects and also to finalize GOBs views on aid negotiations with the relevant countries.
• Preparation of summaries for approval of the Prime Minister on aid and assistance from the European donors.
• Attending PEC/SPEC meetings in the Planning Commission and ADP review and steering Committee meetings in the Ministries/Divisions in connection with the related matters.
• Consolidation and forwarding monthly reports on activities of Europe Wing.            

Branch-3:

This Branch is headed by a Deputy Secretary. Functions related to negotiation, processing and signing of agreements of the financial and technical assistance of DFID, Switzerland (SDC), Swedish Development Cooperation (SDC) and AFD and GAIN. It also reviews and monitors the implementation of the aided projects.

Section-2 (Europe-2):

Presently a Senior Assistant Chief is in charge of this Branch. Functions related to negotiation and finalization of financial and technical assistance for bilateral aid from EU, Belgium , Luxembourg & EIB. Also reviews and monitors the utilization of the assistance from the development partners.

Section-4:

All matters related to economic and technical cooperation with the Russian Federation, Czechoslovakia, Former Yugoslavia, Poland, Romania, Hungary and CIS countries. In addition, this section deals with the coordination matters of the Europe Wing.

Branch: Europe-II

At Present, this branch is headed by a Deputy Secretary.  The main functions of the sections under this branch are: 

• Supervision of allocated responsibilities of Section-3 and Section-5 of Europe Wing relating to assistance from Germany, Austria, Netherlands and Italy.
• Negotiations and finalization of bilateral economic and technical assistance from the Federal Republic of Germany, Netherlands and Italy and processing of grant/loan agreements up to signing.
• Arranging Bi-lateral Consultation and Negotiation with the Federal Republic of Germany.
• Regular review and monitoring of the aided on-going projects for the smooth implementation of the.
• Arranging clearance of the Ministries for experts/consultants serving under technical assistance programmes.

Section-3 (Europe-3):

At present, an Assistant Chief is looking after this section. The main functions of the section are to negotiate, allocate as well as process the bilateral technical assistance from the Netherlands, Italy and the ORIO program.

Section-5 (Europe-5):

A Senior Assistant Chief is in charge of this section. The main function is to process and finalize the Grant/Loan Agreements between Bangladesh and Germany. These include Financial Cooperation Agreement and Project Agreements, Notes of Exchanges (NoEs), Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs). Bi-annual Consultation and Negotiation meetings between Bangladesh and Germany are also arranged by this section.  Furthermore, it  reviews and monitors the implementation of the development and technical assisted projects under signed agreements/MoUs.

List of concerned development partners with complete address:

European Union (EU)
Plot -7, Road-84
Gulshan, Dhaka
Tel:8824730
Fax:-8828622
Web: delbangladesh.eu
 

UK Department for International Development (UKAID)
Ms. Sarah Cooke
Country Representative
UKAID, Bangladesh
British high Commission
UN road
Baridhara, Dhaka-1212
Tel.: 8810800, 8820204, fax: 8802-8823181
http:/www.gov.uk/world/Bangladesh

Swiss Agency for Development & Cooperation (SDC)
Mr. Urs Herren
Ambassador
Embassy of Switzerland, Dhaka
Bay’s Edgewater, 8th Floor, Polt-12, North Avenue
Gulshan-2, Dhahka-1212
Tel. : 8823822,8829555,8812392
Fax: 8802-8823497
E-mail- Dhaka@sdc.net
Web : www.sdc.org.bd

Mr. Derek Mathias Mueller Head of Cooperation
Swiss Agency for Development & Cooperation (SDC)
Embassy of Switzerland, Dhaka
Bay’s Edgewater, 8th Floor, Polt-12, North Avenue
Gulshan-2, Dhahka-1212

Agency Francaise De Development (AFD)
Mr. Michel TRINQUIER
Ambassador
Embassy of France
Road-8, House-2/E-3rd floor
Baridhara, Dhaka-1212

Ms. Marion Sybillion
Project Coordinator
French Embassy in Dhaka
Road-8, House-2/E-3rd floor
Baridhara, Dhaka-1212
Tel : 8822751-54
Fax : 8802-9860712
Web : www.dree.org/bangladesh .
E-mail- sybillinm@afd.fr
www.afd.fr

The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN)
North Gulshan-2, Dhaka-1212
Mobile: 8802-01756619247
E-mail- bkar@gainhealth.org

Russian Federation
Embassy of the Russian Federation
House NE (J) 9, Road 79
Gulshan-2, Dhaka 1212
Fax :( 8802) 986-32-85
E-mail: rusembbd@gmail.Com

Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands
Road No-90, House No-49, Gulshan-2
Dhaka-1212
Tel.: 8822715-8

Federal Republic of Germany:

German Ambassador to Bangladesh
178, Gulshan Avenue
Gulshan-2
Dhaka-1212
Tel.: 880-2-9853521
Fax: + 880-29853260
Email: Info@dhaka.diplo.de

KfW Office, Dhaka   
German House
Road-90, House-10/C
Gulshan-2, Dhaka
Mob: +8801615059839
Tel: +49697431-0
Fax: 49697431-2944

GIZ Office, Dhaka
German House
Road-90, House-10/C
Gulshan-2, Dhaka
Mob: +8801713063784
Tel: +88028823070; ext: 101
Fax: + 88028823099