Canada is giving Bangladesh C$45 million in grants through four new initiatives covering agriculture, food security, trade and the private sector, the Canadian High Commission in Dhaka said in a statement on Sunday, 18 October. The sum is about Tk 390 crore.
The support was announced during the 11 to 14 October visit to Bangladesh of Randeep Sarai, Canada's Minister of State for International Development.
One of the two largest shares is for agriculture. Bioenterprise Canada will receive C$18 million to connect innovators in agriculture and food with Bangladeshi businesses in the sector and to strengthen food security.
Cowater International will receive the same amount, C$18 million, to improve the business climate, simplify regulation and widen Bangladeshi firms' access to international markets. The World Bank will get C$5 million for economic and institutional reform, and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) C$4 million to widen businesses' access to finance.
During the visit Sarai met Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shama Obaed Islam and Mahdi Amin, adviser and spokesman to the prime minister. The talks covered agriculture, health, education, skills, energy, climate finance and the Rohingya crisis. He also visited BRAC's skills training centre at Ashkona in Dhaka, icddr,b, and the Rohingya camps and agricultural research work in Cox's Bazar.
According to the High Commission, Canada has given Bangladesh more than C$6.3 billion in development assistance since independence, and bilateral trade passed C$4 billion in 2025.
For the farm sector, the significance is that a large share of the grant goes directly to food security and to linking Bangladeshi firms with agrifood innovation. The statement did not say how businesses or farmers would be able to take part.
Reporting: statement of the Canadian High Commission in Dhaka, as published by the Agricare24 desk
Photo: Press Information Department / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)
Source: Agricare24
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