Today (Monday) this meeting was held at the minister's office room. During the meeting, various aspects of the long-standing development cooperation between Bangladesh and ADB, addressing the adverse impacts of climate change, and strengthening environment-friendly and sustainable development activities were discussed.

The discussion gave importance to climate adaptation and mitigation activities, increasing climate finance, conservation of forests and biodiversity, controlling air and plastic pollution, expanding the use of renewable energy, and environmentally sound urban and infrastructure development. Views were also exchanged on the possibility of increasing ADB's technical and financial cooperation in enhancing the capacity of people at risk due to climate change and building disaster-resilient infrastructure.

Minister Abdul Awal Mintoo said, although Bangladesh is not responsible for climate change, it is one of the countries most affected by its adverse impacts. To protect the lives, livelihoods and natural resources of the country's people, the government is giving priority to both adaptation and mitigation activities. Adequate, accessible and long-term financing from development partners is needed to successfully implement these activities. For that, we first need to select priorities ourselves. He called for further expansion of ADB's cooperation in environmental conservation, pollution control and climate-resilient development.

ADB Vice-President Yingming Yang praised Bangladesh's initiatives in tackling the impacts of climate change. He expressed interest in further strengthening ADB's partnership with Bangladesh in environmental protection, climate-resilient infrastructure, clean energy and sustainable development activities.

During the meeting, both sides agreed on reviewing the existing areas of cooperation as well as taking up new projects and programs of mutual interest. Both sides expressed optimism about taking forward the development cooperation between Bangladesh and ADB through regular communication and coordination in the future.

Additional Secretary of the Ministry Mohammad Navid Shafiullah and senior officials of ADB were present at that time.