DHAKA, Dec 13, 2019 (BSS) – The Switzerland embassy here celebrated the longstanding Bangladesh-Swiss friendship in the capital by hosting an event titled “Swiss Night”.
Senior government officials, development partners, business community, civil society members, journalists, cultural activists and Swiss citizens living in Bangladesh attended the event at Dutch club in Gulshan last night.
Welcoming the guests, Swiss Ambassador to Bangladesh, Dr. Ren,
Holenstein underlined the importance of two countries for working closely together to generate new ideas and approaches in order to tackle the present and future challenges.
Secretary-Bilateral (Europe, Africa & Americas) and Consular of Foreign
Ministry Kamrul Ahsan attended the event as the chief guest while renowned academic and author Dr Muhammed Zafar Iqbal as special guest.
Both of them put emphasis on further strengthening the existing
excellent deep and multifaceted bilateral relations between Bangladesh and
Switzerland.
At the event, the “Swiss Embassy Award 2019” was conferred to the Human Rights Forum Bangladesh, in recognition of its contribution to the defence and promotion of human rights.
Sheepa Hafiza, Barrister Sara Hossian and Zakir Hossian received the
award on behalf of the forum.
The bilateral trade volume between Bangladesh and Switzerland has almost tripled since 2010 and it is projected to cross USD 1 billion by 2021.
Switzerland’s annual development assistance for Bangladesh stands at
around 22 million US dollars, excluding humanitarian assistance.
Bilateral political relations have also grown stronger between
Bangladesh and Switzerland as in last April the biennial political
consultations were held in Dhaka, where the two countries discussed ways to further strengthen cooperation in the areas of politics, economy and international cooperation.