‘ADB must become Bangladesh’s development partner, not just a lender’
ADB said it wants to work with Bangladesh’s finance ministry to help reduce non-performing loans and to make the financial sector healthier
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has asked the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to become a partner of Bangladesh in various freshly identified sectors of financial development, instead of just granting loans.
The minister made the comment on Tuesday, in response to a remark made by ADB Vice President for Finance and Risk Management Ingrid Van Wees.
She said the ADB wants to work with Bangladesh's finance ministry to help reduce non-performing loans and to make the financial sector healthier.
ADB Vice President Ingrid Van Wees, along with Country Director Manmohan Parkash, called on Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal at his office in Dhaka, said a press release.
The finance minister said, "Bangladesh is considered a role-model for development for many other countries. It has graduated to a lower middle-income country and has achieved the qualification to transition into a developing country through an inclusive development policy."
AHM Mustafa Kamal also thanked the ADB for continuous assistance to Bangladesh in achieving development milestones.
"The ADB has provided Bangladesh around $25.143 billion in assistances. It gave the assistance focusing on sectors such as electricity, fuel, local government, transportation, education, agriculture, water resources and good governance," he said.
Meanwhile, Ingrid Van Wees lauded Bangladesh for the country's socio-economic development in the past 10 years. She also added that the ADB wants to help Bangladesh in issuing local currency bonds.