The Bangladesh Development Forum (BDF) is likely to be held in May next in Dhaka, after a lapse of five years.
Officials disclosed Monday the move initiated towards holding the government-donor meeting and the consent given by the donors in this regard.
The last BDF was held in Dhaka on February 15-16 in 2010 -- and thereafter came a long pause.
The BDF has been held up for the long years due to "cool relations" of the government with some major donors, especially with the World Bank on the alleged Padma Bridge irregularities, and the political turmoil over the issue of the national elections in January 2014.
"The donor-government gathering is expected to be held in May next year. The donors have agreed to participate in the proposed meeting next year," said a senior Economic Relations Division (ERD) official.
He said the government would apprise the development partners of the seventh five-year plan on development of Bangladesh which would require billions of dollars for graduating the country to a middle-income one.
"Since there has been a big gap from the last BDF, we are trying to organise it as soon as possible to seek support of the donors working in Bangladesh for facilitating the country's infrastructure development and poverty cut," the ERD official added.
The co-chairs of the Local Consultative Group -- ERD secretary Mohammad Mejbahuddin and USAID Mission Director in Bangladesh Ms Janina Jaruzelski -- Monday sat for a discussion on the matter of holding the BDF.
The ERD official said: "The General Economics Division (GED) will draft the seventh five-year plan in January next year. Then we will share the documents with the development partners in the next BDF meeting."
Meanwhile, the GED early this year started to frame the country's five-year development policy documents which would guide Bangladesh towards a middle-income country by 2021.
"We are trying to ensure participation of the senior executives of the headquarters of the bilateral and multilateral development partners in the Dhaka BDF meeting," another ERD official told the FE.
Earlier, the high-profile meeting, scheduled to be held in Dhaka on November 2-3 in 2011, was deferred following a request from World Bank (WB) Country Director and then co-chair of the local consultative group (LCG) Ms. Ellen Goldstein.
The ERD later decided to hold the pending BDF in the first quarter of 2012. This meeting also stalled due to the Padma Bridge controversy, officials said.
Usually, the Bangladesh government seeks necessary support and cooperation from the donors at the BDF -- a gathering of the government and bilateral and multilateral donors who bankroll Bangladesh's development schemes.
Bangladesh needs financial support from the donors in achieving double-digit growth and cutting poverty rate down to 10 per cent by 2021.
The ERD official said as BDF is a very important meeting for attracting donors' support for Bangladesh's development plans, the government wanted to ensure participation of the top executives from the headquarters of the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and other major financiers.
"We need more assistance from the donors for developing the country's ailing infrastructure. The BDF is the best platform to apprise the donors about the need of the country," the official said.
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