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CHT development project extended for four years

UNB, Dhaka
The government and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have decided to extend the CHT development project for the next four years.
The two sides decided to extend the 'Promotion of Development and Confidence Building in the Chittagong Hill Tracts' scheme until September 2013, based on the positive impacts of the current phase of the project which ends in September 2009, an official announcement said yesterday
Economic Relations Division (ERD) Secretary M Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan. Acting Secretary of the CHT Affairs Ministry Masud Ahmed and UNDP Country Director Stefan Priesner signed the agreement yesterday on behalf of their respective sides.
The activities of the project, which include community empowerment, institutional capacity building, health, education, economic development and confidence building, are now underway in 16 out of 25 CHT upazilas, benefiting more than 500,000 indigenous people
and Bangalees in often remote locations.
“The extension of the project will raise the total budget of the project from $50 million (approximately Tk 300 crore) to $160.5 million (approximately Tk 1100 crore), thus providing international development assistance of significant scale to the CHT in order to build confidence among the people and institutions of the CHT to promote long-term peace," it said.
In addition to UNDP's own resources, funds for this purpose have been made available by the European Commission, Canada (CIDA), Denmark (DANIDA), the USA (USAID), Norway, Australia (AusAID) and Japan.
"UNDP is pleased to continue this successful multisectoral project to support the process of peace building that emanated from the signing of the Peace Accord. This will be done through the immediate provision of multiple services to the peoples of CHT, whilst building the basis for long-term .sustainable development in the region," said theUNDPCountry Director.
The Chittagong Hill TYacts
region is home to 11 distinctive indigenous groups and ethnic Bangalees.
According to sources. 25 years of protracted conflict has left many of its 1.5 million people in conditions of extreme poverty and the region is in need of economic and social regeneration.
The signing of the Peace Accord in December 1997 raised high expectations, not only within the CHT but across Bangladesh and internationally, that it would serve as die cornerstone of a successful peacebuildingprocess and as a means for opening up new opportunities for development
To support this peace and development process, UNDP launched its development project in 2003, working in close partnership with the Ministry of Chittagong Hill TYacts Affairs. Chittagong Hill TYacts Regional Council, Hill District Councils, Circle Chiefs, CHT Development Board, Upazila Parishads, Union Parishads, village organisations (Para Development Committees), andlocalPartncrNGOs.