Finance Minister AMA Muhith Saturday was highly critical of the Washington-based World Bank (WB) for its failure to promote many innovative and risky activities in Bangladesh.

"The World Bank is shy of innovations, they don't undertake innovative risky activities including MTBF (medium-term budget framework)," Mr Muhith observed while speaking as chief guest at a seminar on the roadmap for deepening the MTBF in Bangladesh held at a city hotel.

Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan attended the inaugural session as special guest while Secretary of the Finance Division Fazle Kabir, WB Country Programme Coordinator for Bangladesh and Nepal Andras Horvai and the additional secretary of the finance division spoke on the occasion.

The secretaries of major line ministries, divisions and other institutions, local and international experts were present in the seminar.

The Finance Minister, however, said two such types of innovative projects -- trade and industrial policy and water resources planning -- were forwarded to the WB in 1981 but they did not take any initiative to implement those.

"They felt shy of those projects," he added.

Mr Muhith claimed that after a few years, he found in a book prepared by the WB that those projects were included in it.

"I contested the WB's book," he added.

Mr Muhith was also critical of the high government officials about their ignorance of the details of MTBF procedures.

"I doubt whether all of you have read the MTBF document," he said terming the document an important text.

News: The Daily Financial Express/Bangladesh/9th-Dec-12