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Switzerland, ADB to support skills training in Bangladesh

Xinhua, January 20, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Bangladeshi government have signed an agreement for a 10 million U.S. dollar grant to help scale up skills training for young workers to boost income and productivity. The grant is provided by the government of Switzerland and will be administered by the ADB.

Saifuddin Ahmed, joint secretary of Bangladesh's Economic Relations Division, and Kazuhiko Higuchi, country director for Bangladesh Resident Mission of ADB, signed the agreement on behalf of their respective sides on Monday.

This assistance is part of the 30 million U.S. dollars grant that the government of Switzerland has planned to contribute to the Skills for Employment Investment Program. The investment program is implemented by the government of Bangladesh through the Ministry of Finance. The investment program will have three tranches and will be implemented over seven years.

"The assistance provided by the government of Switzerland will support Bangladesh's efforts to become a middle-income country by raising worker's skills, productivity and income," said Country Director Kazuhiko Higuchi. "Through the grant, the Skills for Employment Investment Program will benefit from the experience and expertise of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation in skills development. "

The assistance under the first tranche of the investment program will target 40,000 women and disadvantaged people, including those with disabilities. It will also support 32 public training institutions under Ministry of Education, Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment and Ministry of Industries, nine industry associations; a microcredit organization (Palli-Karma Sahayak Foundation) and Bangladesh Bank.

The investment program will equip over 1.25 million youths with employable skills by 2021 through a strong involvement of the private sector. The investment program will support skills training in 15 priority sectors, starting with six sectors: garments and textiles, leather, construction, light engineering, information technology and shipbuilding.

A major target of the investment program is to boost job placement to around 70 percent, from about 40 percent now through performance based funding, said the bank in a statement.

It said the investment program is estimated to cost a total of 1.07 billion U.S. dollars.

In addition to 30 million U.S. dollars from the government of Switzerland and the 350 million U.S. dollars ADB assistance, the investment program is expected to be complemented by 200 million U. S. dollars from the government of Bangladesh, 400 million U.S. dollars from other development partners and 90 million U.S. dollars from the private sector.

The first tranche of the ADB loan is 100 million U.S. dollars. Endi