Swedish Minister for International Development Cooperation Per Olsson Fridh arrived in Dhaka on Saturday for a weeklong visit to see Bangladesh and launch the new five-year cooperation plan to strengthen the bilateral relations.
This is his first official visit to any country after taking office in early February this year, the Swedish embassy in Dhaka said.
“I am thrilled to be here in Bangladesh on my first overseas visit as Sweden’s Minister for International Development Cooperation. This is a historic moment in Bangladesh’s history. Our ties stretch back over 50 years and I look forward to exploring how we can strengthen our partnership further,” the minister was quoted as saying in a statement.
“As the world strives to recover from the covid19-pandemic we need a greener, fairer, and more inclusive approach to global development. Sweden stands ready to contribute,” he said.
He will call on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and hold talks with the ministers for finance, foreign, commerce, and environment, interact with the representatives of the civil society and development partners, and visit Cox’s Bazar and Sundarbans, a senior official at the foreign ministry told Bangladesh Post.
He will also deliver a lecture on ‘Bangabandhu's concept of Sonar Bangla, Swedish Model of welfare state and tackling the global challenges’ on Sunday.
Before leaving on March 19, he will launch the new Strategy for Development Cooperation with Bangladesh for the years 2021-2025.
Sweden was one of the first countries to recognise Bangladesh. Next year, the two countries will celebrate 50 years of bilateral relations.
“The ties are vibrant and multifaceted covering development cooperation, trade and investments, and people-to-people engagement,” the embassy said.
Sweden’s development cooperation with Bangladesh also goes back to independence in 1971.
The new one, which will be launched by the minister, will be the 10th strategy for Sweden’s development cooperation with Bangladesh and covers four areas: inclusive economic development; democracy, human rights, rule of law and gender equality; health and climate and environment.
In addition, Sweden will continue to actively engage and support efforts to provide assistance for the Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar District, as well as development for the host communities of the District, the embassy said.
Its current strategy for international development cooperation with Bangladesh covers the period 2014–2020 and comprises a total of SEK 1.9 billion, according to the embassy.
The two-way trade was $768.82 million in fiscal 2018-19, according to the commerce ministry. Of that, $696.04 million worth of goods were Bangladesh’s exports.
Per Olsson Fridh belongs to the Green Party. He has previously held the roles of State Secretary to the Minister for International Development Cooperation as well as State Secretary to the Minister for Culture and Democracy.
The Swedish embassy said during the visit, the minister will travel to different parts of Bangladesh to visit development and humanitarian assistance programmes funded by Sweden.
