Bangladesh getting ready for sovereign rating by June

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Siddique Islam
Bangladesh will start final negotiations with two international companies early next month for signing agreements with the companies to prepare the country's credit rating.
The two companies -- Moody's Singapore and Standard & Poor's International - have been selected by the proposal evaluation committee on the basis of their financial and technical evaluations.
The government earlier formed the six-member proposal evaluation committee, headed by Executive Director of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) Khandakar Muzharul Haque, to prepare the country's first credit rating, officially known as sovereign rating.
The first negotiation meeting will be held on January 5 between the concerned authorities of the central bank and the representatives of Standard & Poor's International and the second meeting on January 6 with the representatives of Moody's Singapore to discuss the draft agreements.
'We'll sign the agreements with the companies after finalising the drafts,' a BB senior official told the FE, adding that the fate of sovereign rating would depend on the final negotiations with the companies.
'We're hopeful about completing the preparation of sovereign credit rating by June next,' another BB official said.
He also said the central bank has been working since 2007 to prepare the country's credit rating report to help mobilise funds from overseas sources and foreign investment.
'We take time for following the existing Public Procurement Act to appoint the companies for preparing such a document,' the BB official said while explaining the delay.
'Both public and private sectors will take the advantage of receiving loans from overseas sources at lower interest rates if the country has a credit rating report,' the official noted.
The country will need to have credit rating if the government wants to float bonds in foreign currency, because investors, particularly foreign, evaluate such rating before making their investments.
The central bank will allow three foreign commercial banks to provide advisory services to the companies during preparation of such a report, according to the BB officials.
Earlier, the Standard Chartered Bank (SCB), the Citibank N.A, and the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) Limited showed interest in helping the authorities concerned to prepare such rating documents.