IDCOL has secured two separate funds from the Germany's development bank, Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), to finance and promote energy efficiency and renewable energy in industries. KfW will extend the funds -- EUR 41 million and EUR 99.5 million -- to IDCOL to foster energy-efficient and renewable energy projects respectively. A signing ceremony to this end was held at a city hotel on Saturday, says a press release. IDCOL and KfW Development Bank signed two separate loan agreements under which IDCOL will be acting as the Project Executing Agency (PEA) to finance companies undertaking energy efficiency and renewable energy measures. The fund focusing on energy efficiency will be utilised for various puposes, including energy efficiency extensions or replacement of equipment & machinery with a view to reducing final energy consumption and CO2 emission by at least 20 per cent. The renewable energy-concentrated fund will be used to finance solar irrigation, solar grid-tied, and biogas (domestic and commercial) projects. Alamgir Morshed, Executive Director & CEO, IDCOL, and Michael Sumser Hellstern, Director, KfW Bangladesh, exchanged the agreements at the signing ceremony. Sharifa Khan, Secretary, Economic Relations Division (ERD), Munira Sultana, Chairman, SREDA, SM Monirul Islam, Deputy CEO, IDCOL, officials of the Ministry of Finance and Bangladesh Bank were also present. In her speech, ETD Secretary & IDCOL Chairman Sharifa Khan said, "I believe, today's separate agreement signing ceremony is the beginning to something extraordinary for Bangladesh."
