Remarks by High Commissioner of India to Bangladesh

on ITEC Day, September 16, 2021

  Hon’ble Deputy Minister for Education, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, His Excellency Mohibul Hassan Chowdhoury, MP

Distinguished guests,

Dear ITEC Alumni,

Friends from the media,

Ladies and Gentlemen.

Good Evening

  I am extremely happy to be here today at the annual celebrations of the ITEC Day. Today, we commemorate our alumni and renew our ties with them, and proudly showcase the abundant pool of talent that comprises the alumni of this immensely popular programme.

2. The Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation programme (ITEC) is fully sponsored flagship programme of Development Partnership Administration of Government of India. In its 57^th year now, the programme has made great strides in building bridges of friendship across more than 160 countries including those in Asia, Africa, East Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean as well as Pacific and Small Island countries.

3. Our neighbors naturally remain our closest development partners. Ours are ties of blood, history, geography, resources, language and culture. And in the last few years, I can say with certainty that our “development partnership” has come to occupy a central focus of our mutual engagement. It spans every aspect of human endeavor ranging from big infrastructure projects to capacity building to high impact community projects etc.

4. Even more importantly, the depth and resilience of our people-to-people links is continuously reinforced through some of our largest capacity building programmes anywhere in the world. ITEC programme remains one of the most impactful capacity building programmes since 1964.

5. ITEC has benefitted 200,000 professionals over the last 55 years. Today, we offer around 14,000 scholarships annually to professionals from 160 partner countries in about 100 premier Indian institutions. We have strived to keep these training courses relevant and contemporary and demand based.

Friends,

6. On 7^th October, 2019 ITEC 2.0 was unveiled, which has expanded the outreach by offering new initiatives under the programme. The new initiatives include participation throuth ITEC-Executive, ITEC Onsite and e-ITEC. ITEC-Executive is aimed for senior officials and professionals, policy makers and technocrats, at our apex public institutions like IITs, IIMs. Under ITEC Onsite, customised capacity building programme will be provided by shifting training to partner country by deputing our trainers for a short duration. Then there is e-ITEC, under which current ITEC training in India will be shifted to Bangladesh and live online training will be delivered by Indian faculties through video conferencing. Such courses can be tailor made based in specific requirement of the partner country.

7. Over the years, ITEC has created a large number of alumni who have become brand ambassadors and powerful links between India and Bangladesh.

  I am happy to share that in Bangladesh, more than 4,000 young professionals have undergone courses under different programmes in premier Indian Institutes. We have also conducted tailor made courses at the specific request of Bangladesh Government. Five batches of the tailor-made course have so far been conducted for Bangladesh at the National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research (NITTTR), Chennai in which around 200 teachers from schools, Arts and Science Colleges, Polytechnics, Vocational Education Institutes, Universities and madrassas have been trained. Besides, Specific tailor made courses such as Covid Management for Health Professionals at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhubaneshwar, Special Training for Yoga Trainers at Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana, Bengaluru, Media Management for Journalists at Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, Kolkata, Capacity building programme on SAFTA provision at Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Centre for WTO Studies, New Delhi to name a few have been organised in the past. We invite suggestion for more such tailor made programmes to fulfill the specific requirements of Bangladesh Government. As private sector enterprises are rapidly improving their footprint in the country, I want to inform you all that ITEC courses are available for professional in private sector for their skill development.

8. During 2020-21, due to the pandemic restrictions, focus was shifted on interactive web based training programmes through video conferencing under the e-ITEC rubric. We successfully conducted courses for Gender Inclusive Governance for Policymakers and Good Governance Practices in a Pandemic at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie, Policing during Pandemic Times at Bureau of Police Research and Development, Delhi, Capacity Building and Exposure on Regulatory Procedures, Best Practices for Promoting Technology Cooperation particularly for Mitigation of Covid-19 at Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi etc. I am happy to note that we got wide response and participation in 46 such virtual courses in which more than 600 Bangladeshis from different walks of life participation and shared their valuable experience.

9. Under our Civilian programme, we have also been offering training programs for strengthening the capacity of officials of Bangladesh working in various Ministries and Departments including Ministry of Public Administration, Judiciary, Education, Police, Customs and Narcotics control etc.

  I am glad to inform you that the National Centre for Good Governance in Mussoorie had trained 1500 BCS-Admin cadre officials in the past five years and will be training another 1800 officials in the next five years. Similarly, National Judicial Academy, Bhopal has been extending training programs for 1500 Bangladesh judicial officials from 2017-18, These training programs provide us an opportunity to share our best practices with the brightest brains of Bangladesh and we equally benefit from the developmental experiences of this country which is making phenomenal stride both in economic and social development.

Ladies and gentlemen,

 I wish to thank you for joining us in our celebrations tonight. I thank the Hon’ble Deputy Minister for Education profoundly, for taking time out from his busy schedule and gracing this occasion with his presence.

I wish you a pleasant and enjoyable evening. Jai Hind and Joy Bangla.

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