Press statement by President von der Leyen with Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ahead of the signature of a Renewable Energy Package and Annual Action Plan 2023

Dear Prime Minister,

I am very glad to welcome you to Brussels, as we celebrate 50 years of diplomatic relations between Bangladesh and the European Union. In all these years, we have built a solid partnership. And now we will take it to the next level. Because in a time of global turbulence, the European Union is glad to be able to count on its long-standing partners, as they can count on us.

So first, we are relaunching negotiations on a new Partnership and Cooperation Agreement. And that is great news. Second, this new chapter in our relationship will be underpinned by new investments under Global Gateway – we just discussed it. We are about to sign two investment packages.

The first one is a Renewable Energy Package – more than EUR 400 million to boost the green transition in your country. That is good for the climate. And that is also good for job creation locally. Global Gateway will invest close to EUR 1 billion in Bangladesh. And we will not stop there. We are working together with the EIB to improve the connectivity in your country – we discussed that, too – from your port infrastructure to railways, and digital infrastructure. There are many great projects that we have in the pipeline.

The second investment package we will sign is our Annual Action Plan for 2023. It is an investment roadmap of EUR 70 million in your public administration, and in employment, in skills and education, and green construction.

So, this new chapter in our partnership is starting off really well.

Thank you very much again for being here in Brussels.