'Besides economic strategy, the US team will try to understand our political map'

Since the formation of the interim government led by Chief Adviser Professor Dr Muhammad Yunus, the first US high-level delegation has just arrived in Dhaka. 

US Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, Donald Lu, will lead the delegation. The discussions will focus on how the United States can contribute to Bangladesh's economic growth, financial stability, and development priorities. 

The Business Standard spoke to former Ambassador Humayun Kabir about Bangladesh's expectations regarding bilateral trade, investment, and ways through which the US can support Bangladesh's economic progress. 

As far as we know, there are two components in the upcoming US delegation: there is a diplomatic or political team, and there is an economic team. The presence of both of these components give us an indication of what they are thinking and what we might expect. 

What I think is, this is more an exploratory visit for the delegates. There has been a huge change in Bangladesh, something no one could imagine. The students were at the forefront of a movement and the common people supported and backed it. This forced a government, which was in power for the past 15 years, to fall in just a month. 

It has been a challenge for India, the US and European countries to apprehend what happened in Bangladesh, who were the people behind this, how did they do this etc. I believe the delegates will want to know these things and they would also like to get an idea of how this interim government came into power.

The interim government is a different kind of government, and they are dealing with various challenges - primarily economic and political ones. How this government is planning to work in the coming days, what their strategies and plan of actions are - the delegates would like to get an idea of these. 

We are going through a reserve crisis, we have a challenge regarding budget support, and the inflation rate is still high. Also, due to the countrywide movement and the current situation, our export has been impacted. 

Amid this situation, what the government is trying to do, what plans they have for the next six months or a year - the delegates would try to find out. Besides the economic strategies, the US team will try to understand our political map as well.

They will also talk about the reforms the interim government is talking about. For many years, the US has been telling us about reforms in various sectors, but we didn't listen to them. 

Now that we are talking about reforms, they want to know what these are going to look like, what would be the timeframe for these changes, and how the political parties are going to own up to them in the future. 

So, in a nutshell, the US delegates will probably focus on the context of the present political and economic condition of Bangladesh, and the violation of human rights for which the Human Rights commission of the UN is already in the country. 

They might want to assess the character and the scale of human rights violations, what we want to do about it, how we are going to deal with the present challenges and what we want for our future. For example, we want to get laundered money back in our country, keep our economy active; we also want foreign aid, grant or loan if possible etc.    

From a political perspective, Donald Lu [The US Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs] might focus on our relationship with India. How we will take it forward, and what we are thinking from a regional, and as well as a bilateral perspective. 

The US does not have any development wing in Bangladesh, which means we cannot get any funds from their Development Finance Corporation (DFC). 

One of the main reasons for this is the complications regarding human rights violation and labour rights. We could not solve these issues and as a result, we could not take advantage of the financing. Regarding this, they have a strategic objective as well.   

The main financing partners for our development projects are China and India. The US wants to participate here, but they cannot as there is no window for development funds and because of our human rights issues, certain rules cannot be applied. So, they will assess these issues and they might have some proposals for us, such as what can we do about this. 

And from our side, the present government will explain what has been happening in the country for the past years: enforced disappearances, murders, oppression, human rights violation etc. Professor Yunus will speak about the reform commissions, the banking commissions he has formed, and his recent steps. 

Also, in the coming days, to move forward as a nation, what help and aid we need from the US, in a bilateral setting or as a financial aid from the DFC, how these can be implemented - these issues might also come into the discussion.  

Economist Dr Birupaksha Paul and former Ambassador Humayun Kabir spoke to TBS reporters Shadique Mahbub Islam and Kamrun Naher over the phone