Finance minister urges for more budget support from AIIB
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Tuesday urged the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) to reconsider its various conditions of loans since the global economy is passing through a tough time and Bangladesh is not an exception to that, reports news agency BSS.
Kamal made the request considering the current abnormal increase in SOFR (Secured Overnight Financing Rate).
The finance minister made such request at a meeting with visiting AIIB vice president, (investment operations, region-1) Urjit Patel at a city hotel, said a finance ministry press release.
Extending thanks to the AIIB for providing $1.05 billion as budget support to Bangladesh to offset the shocks from the Covid-19 pandemic, Kamal said Bangladesh needs more budget support.
In order to attain the various development goals, there is a need to ensure sufficient supply of internal and foreign resources. In this regard, like always we seek continued support from our development partners
He also requested the AIIB for introducing a cap, re-fixing the SPREAD, increasing the timeframe for maturity and waiving commitment fee following the instances of the World Bank.
The finance minister also suggested that like the World Bank, the AIIB can focus on green climate finance and SDG linked bond.
He also sought continued support from the country’s development partners including from the AIIB in attaining various development goals of Bangladesh.
“In order to attain the various development goals, there is a need to ensure sufficient supply of internal and foreign resources. In this regard, like always we seek continued support from our development partners,” he said.
Highlighting the continued success and developments of Bangladesh in various socio-economic fronts over the years, Kamal said that starting from a minimal GDP size of $6.3 billion in 1972, the country’s GDP size crossed the $100 billion mark in just 38 years in 2009.
“With the passage of time, Bangladesh has now become the 35th largest economy of the world with a GDP size of $465 billion. Bangladesh was the 41st largest economy last year with a GDP size of $396 billion,” he added.
The finance minister also said that the next goal of the government is to turn Bangladesh as a higher mid-income country by 2031 and a ‘smart’ developed country by 2041.
Bangladesh Bank governor Abdur Rouf Talukder, finance division senior secretary Fatima Yasmin, Economic Relations Division (ERD) secretary Sharifa Khan were present, among others, at the meeting.