Bangladesh has sought $8 billion from the $52 billion pot that the World Bank is set to dispatch over the next three years, Finance Minister AMA Muhith said yesterday.
The disclosure came at the press conference called in at his secretariat office about his recent official visits to Washington DC and Mexico City for the WB-IMF spring meetings and Global Partnership and Economic Development Cooperation (GPEDC) respectively.
In the last cycle, the country received around $6.5 billion, and Muhith said a higher amount was sought this time as the country has proved that it can utilise foreign assistance well.
“In various sectors such as health, education, water and sanitation, the country's performance is better than its peers.”
The finance minister said the relation with the WB took a turn for worse over the Padma bridge issue in 2012 but it has improved much now, while citing the $2.8 billion committed by the global lender for the current fiscal year, the highest in the country's history. The level of assistance from the International Finance Corporation and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, too, increased.
Meanwhile, Mesbah Uddin, secretary of the Economic Relations Division, said the GPEDC meeting has been very successful in the context of Bangladesh.
The joint statement published after the Mexico meeting said the least-developed countries succeeded in pushing forward their demands, he said.
“We projected our demand for more foreign assistance to the infrastructure sector as it plays a significant role in poverty alleviation,” the ERD secretary added.
Arastoo Khan, additional secretary of ERD, said the increase in GDP-tax ratio in the last five years was lauded in the WB-IMF spring meeting.

The government considers taking action against the BASIC Bank board in accordance with the suggestions made in a central bank report, Finance Minister AMA Muhith said yesterday.
“Bangladesh Bank has not directly recommended disbanding the BASIC Bank board, but it pointed the finger at the board for various irregularities,” Muhith said at a press briefing at his secretariat.
The press briefing was called to share the outcomes of the finance minister's visits to Mexico and WB-IMF spring meetings in Washington. Muhith said the BB has sent him a report on various irregularities committed by the board of BASIC Bank. “You will see the action,” the minister said without elaborating.
Giving an example of Sonali Bank, Muhith said the central bank earlier recommended disbanding the board of the state-owned bank and the ministry took action accordingly.
The BB can take any action against the managing director of a bank as per the new banking companies act, he said.
Serious irregularities have allegedly been taking place in BASIC Bank for the last two and a half years. But neither the government nor the central bank has taken any tough action against the bank.
A central bank official said the BB on different occasions sent reports to the government about BASIC Bank.

 NCC Bank Limited will provide Tk 1.0 crore to the Dhaka University for constructing a gate named ‘Freedom and Democracy’ at Nilkhet entrance of the university.

In this connection, NCC Bank Limited and Dhaka University Alumni Association (DUAA) signed a MoU at the DUAA conference room of the university recently.

Acting Managing of NCC Bank Golam Hafiz Ahmed and President of DUAA Raquibuddin Ahmed signed the MoU on behalf of their respective organizations.

 Midland Bank Limited organised the 1st Annual General Meeting at Pan Pacific Sonargaon in Dhaka on Saturday.

M Moniruzzaman Khandaker, Chairman of the bank presided over the meeting, said a press release.

Directors and sponsors of the bank were present in the meeting. AKM Shahidul Haque, Managing Director and CEO, Khandokar Nayeemul Kabir, DMD along with other high officials of the bank attended.

KARACHI: The existing global Islamic finance landscape is no longer restricted to Islamic countries as basic tenets of Islamic finance, such as ethics, morality and investment in real economy are appealing non-Muslims also, said Ashraf Mahmood Wathra, the acting governor of State Bank of Pakistan.

Speaking at the Third Islamic Finance Expo and Conference-2014 on Thursday, the SBP’s acting governor said Pakistan being among the pioneers of Islamic banking also witnessed growth of over 30pc annually over the last five years and its share in country’s banking system has risen to over 10pc with a network of more than 1300 branches in 87 districts across the country.

The future outlook of the industry is also highly positive with bright prospects of achieving a market share of 20pc by 2020, he said.The SBP recently issued a comprehensive Shariah Governance Framework that institutionalises Shariah compliance function in IBIs and explicitly defines Shariah-related roles and responsibilities of its all key components, including board of directors, the executive management and Shariah Boards, he said.

He said that the government was already supporting local youth for entrepreneurship and loaning to youngsters through Islamic banks would be considered seriously. —The Dawn