Bangladesh Collaborates with China in Strengthening the Skills of its Youth

With its youthful workforce and the aspiration to be a developed country by 2041, Bangladesh emphasizes skills development to provide its people the ability to transform the country into a high productivity economy. To accelerate progress in this area, the government has been actively tapping into greater South-South cooperation, especially with other Asian countries.

Bangladesh and the China’s Yunnan Province’s partnership on the Skills and Training Enhancement Project (STEP) is one example. Following the International Skills Conference held in Dhaka held in March 2018, a  Bangladesh delegation, led by Mr. Md. Alamgir, Secretary of the Technical and Madrasah Education Division of the Ministry of Education, visited technical education institutions in Yunnan that are expected to receive students from Bangladesh.

Expert trainers in China will help their Bangladesh counterparts improve in the areas of student exchange, teachers’ professional development, and knowledge sharing among others. The agreement will mean that that the first cohort of 85 Bangladeshi students will be enrolled in the partnered Yunnan institutions with scholarships by September 2018.

It was also discussed that a national level agreement will be formulated between the two ministries of education to reflect the high level of cooperation, facilitated by the Embassy of China in Dhaka under the country level cooperation framework and Belt and Road initiative of China.

Bangladesh’s Skills and Training Enhancement Project, and China’s Yunnan Technical and Vocational Education and Training Project, were instrumental for the collaboration. Mr. Md Alamgir, stated that the government of Bangladesh is highly appreciative of the educational cooperation between China and Bangladesh and thanked the Yunnan delegation for extending the cooperation. The Yunnan delegation expressed interest to further this newly strengthened partnership. 

The World Bank education team in Dhaka and Beijing have been working closely for strengthening and expanding the cooperation between Bangladesh and China. It is a wonderful example of cross-border collaboration in helping the clients with specific focus on south-south cooperation.

Stayed tuned for updates on the student experiences from China. We’re also looking for more education partnerships from Asia and around the world so please contact me at mrahman2@worldbank.org if you are interested in potentially partnering.