Staff Correspondent

Minister of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Tajul Islam said that Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has been working as one of the subsidiary organizations of Bangladesh for a long time.

Nine projects are being implemented with JICA support in the financial year 2024-25 The amount of financial assistance is Tk 11 thousand 344 crores 72 lakhs. 227 development projects of the local government department are going to be implemented in the current financial year The total allocation for the projects is 38 thousand 888 million taka.

Minister of Local Government presented this information to the journalists present during a meeting with JICA Senior Vice President Hara Shohei at his office in the Secretariat on Wednesday afternoon.

The minister said that 4 more projects are going to be started in addition to the existing projects with the help of JICA. The projects are Upazila Administration and Development Project-2 (UGDP-2), Proposed South Chittagong Regional Water Supply Project, Chittagong Sewerage Project Catchment-2 & 4 under Chittagong WASA and Haor Flood Management and Livelihood Development Project (Phase 2). The amount of JICA assistance for the proposed 4 projects may be Tk 20 thousand 576 crore 56 lakhs.

He also said that JICA has been working with the Ministry of Local Government for decades. JICA is supporting various projects including local government empowerment, capacity building, local road connectivity Hopefully, through this meeting, this support will increase further.

At this time, JICA Vice President Hara Shohei said, JICA's ongoing projects with Bangladesh have a significant part with the Ministry of Local Government. Already many projects have progressed, discussions are also going on about some new projects. Bangladesh has progressed a lot in the economy, hopefully by continuing this trend, Bangladesh will finally come out of the list of least developed countries by 2026.

The Chief Engineer of the Local Government Engineering Department Ali Akhtar , Chief Engineer of Department of Public Health Tushar Mohan Sadhu Khan , Sakudu Shunsuke, Deputy Director General of South Asia Division of JICA, Ichiguchi Tumohide, Chief Representative of JICA Bangladesh and senior officials of JICA and Local Government Department were present.