The crucial meeting of the Bangladesh Development Forum (BDF), a platform of the development partners of Bangladesh, is unlikely to be held at the end of April as scheduled because of the ongoing political unrest, sources at the Economic Relations Division (ERD) told The Independent. Expressing dismay over the uncertainty about holding the BDF meeting, a senior finance ministry official said the BDF meeting was very significant against the backdrop of the pullout of the three major donors from the Padma Bridge project.
However, he said the government was yet to take any formal decision on whether to scrap the decision to hold the BDF meeting.
On the other hand, the development partners will also take into consideration the tenure of the government, particularly whether it will be able to implement development projects within its tenure. This is one of the reasons for not holding the meeting, sources added.
In January, it had been primarily decided at the meeting of local consultative groups in Bangladesh that the meeting would be held here in the last week of April after a gap of over a year-and-a-half, ERD sources said on Monday. The meeting could not be held earlier in 2011 following the row between Bangladesh and the World Bank over the corruption allegations in connection with the Padma Bridge, even though the meeting is extremely important for generating foreign development assistance.
Following the schism over the financing for the Padma bridge, the high-profile meeting of the BDF, which was to be held on November 2-3 in 2011 in Dhaka, was deferred.
Later, senior ERD officials told the media that a new date would be announced for the meeting. After more than a year, the government is now taking initiatives to hold the meeting in Dhaka.
The BDF meeting was scheduled to discuss and share the government’s initiatives to implement the Sixth Five-Year Plan (SFYP) with development partners.
Even though the meeting is extremely important for generating foreign assistance, the ERD said the development partners will not respond in this regard because of the current political unrest.
The government, in collaboration with the development partners, held the last high-level BDF meeting in Dhaka on February 15-16, 2010. It was the first such event since 2004.
In the last meeting, the development partners suggested that the BDF should be an annual event. Besides, finance minister AMA Muhith, at a press conference after the meeting, said, “We shall consider it. But what we shall ensure is that it meets on a regular basis. In 2010, of course, we shall have one meeting to consider the Sixth Five-Year Plan (SFYP) when its draft is at the finalisation stage.”
General Economic Division (GED) member Prof Dr Shamsul Alam told The Independent on Monday it is important for Bangladesh to discuss the need for foreign investment for ensuring the economy’s higher growth. “We need huge foreign investment, including foreign direct investment (FDI), as per the Sixth Five Year Plan,” he said, adding, “For this reason, it is mandatory to hold the meeting for informing the development partners.”
-With The Independent input
