Fate of BDF meet uncertain again

FE Team | Published: March 05, 2013 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

FHM Humayan Kabir The Bangladesh Development Forum (BDF) meeting, scheduled to be held in May next, has become uncertain again as donors appear to be reluctant to participate due to present political unrest in the country, officials said Monday. Economic Relations Division (ERD) officials said after failing to hold the BDF meetings twice - first in late 2011 and second in early last year in Dhaka, the government recently decided to hold it in May next. The ERD in a meeting held last week observed that it will be difficult to hold BDF meeting at this moment because of the political instability. "Senior executives from the headquarters of the bilateral and multilateral development partners may not participate in BDF meeting due to present political unrest in Bangladesh," a senior ERD official told the FE. Earlier, the high-profile meeting of the BDF, scheduled to be held in Dhaka on November 2-3 in 2011, was deferred following a request by the immediate past World Bank (WB) Country Director and the 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 was also not held due to the Padma Bridge impasse with the World Bank, officials said. The last BDF meeting in collaboration with the development partners was held in Dhaka on February 15-16, 2010. The BDF meet is scheduled to discuss and share implementation review report of the Bangladesh's current Sixth Five-Year Plan (SFYP) with the development partners. "Since the mid-term review of the 6th five year plan has not been completed yet, there is no important point for discussion in the next BDF. So, the ERD in the meeting last week decided to hold the BDF after preparing the mid-term review of the five-year plan," said a Joint Secretary at ERD. Now ERD secretary and also the Co-Chair of the LCG Abul Kalam Azad will request the General Economic Division (GED) to complete the mid-term review of the 6th five-year plan (2011-15) shortly which will be placed before the proposed BDF, he added. Usually, the Bangladesh government seeks necessary support and cooperation from the donors at the BDF meeting between the government and bilateral and multilateral donors of Bangladesh. Bangladesh needs financial support from the donors to achieve double-digit growth and cut the poverty rate to 10 per cent by 2021. He said they are trying to hold the meeting with participation of the top executives of the headquarters of the major bilateral and multilateral donors. "But they are not interested to visit Dhaka due to the political unrest."