Bangladesh seeks ADB's increased support to meet challenges
Mahmood Ali expressed his optimism that the ADB meeting will set the just vision to steer through a troubled world
Finance Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali has sought the Asian Development Bank's increased support to meet Bangladesh's present challenges catapulted by prolonged conflicts, rising geopolitical tensions, and frequent raids of extreme weather events.
Speaking at the ADB's 57th annual meeting on 5 May, he called upon the ADB to provide concessional support along with investment in projects for meeting the challenges of food security, the digital divide, energy security, and tax reforms in Bangladesh.
Mahmood Ali hoped that the ADB meeting would set the just vision to steer through a troubled world, determine strategies for addressing real challenges, scale up concessional climate finances, and harness newer opportunities in digital economic cooperation and regional connectivity.
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While responding in the Governors' Seminar to the role of regional economies in an age of economic fragmentation and advancement of climate technologies, he stressed building greater cooperation among regional economies for a green transition in the industrial value chain.
"Accelerating regional connectivity measures could be key to using the region's green opportunities in scale as well as expanding the benefits of industrial production," he added.
Mulyani Indrawati, Governor for Indonesia, ADB and Minister of Finance, Indonesia; Masatsugu Asakawa, President, ADB; Lasha Khutsishvil, Minister of Finance, Georgia and Rose N Nakanaga, secretary of Finance and Administration, Federated States of Micronesia, attended the seminar.
Zeinab Badawi, international broadcaster and president of SOAS, London University moderated the session.
The Finance Minister also had a bilateral meeting with a German delegation headed by Niels Annen, parliamentary state secretary to the Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development and Governor for Germany in the ADB.
During the meeting, the German minister expressed interest in joining the Bangladesh Climate and Development Platform and widening the Bangladesh-German climate partnership.
