Sovereign credit rating begins by May next

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FE Report
The work on Bangladesh's first credit rating might start by May next, aiming at helping the country mobilise overseas funds and attract investment, Bangladesh Bank (BB) officials said Wednesday.
"We are hopeful about the start of work on preparation of a sovereign credit rating for the country by May next," a BB senior official told the FE, adding that the central bank has planned to appoint two reputed companies for the job.
The proposal evaluation committee on the credit rating has finalised the draft expression of interest (EoI) that will be published in foreign and local newspapers after approval of the BB governor.
The committee finalised the draft Wednesday at its first meeting, held at the central bank with its Chairman and Executive Director of the BB Khandakar Muzharul Haque in the chair.
The government earlier formed a six-member proposal evaluation committee to prepare the country's first credit rating, officially known as sovereign rating.
"We will publish the EoI through our website and newspapers to attract reputed international firms for preparing such document," another BB official said.
The committee will prepare a short list after receiving the EoIs from the interested parties, he added.
"We will complete all works in line with the existing public procurement act to ensure accountability and transparency," the central bank official noted.
The central bank will provide information to the selected rating agencies to help prepare the rating document, according to the BB's proposal.
Currently, Fitch, Moody's and Standard & Poor's are well known global agencies doing sovereign rating for countries.
A total of Tk 15 million has been estimated as cost for getting the rating done. The fund will be provided initially by the central bank, official sources said.
The country will need to have credit rating if the government wants to float bonds in foreign currency, because investors, particularly the foreign ones, evaluate such rating before their investment.
Meanwhile, the Standard Chartered Bank (SCB), the Citibank N.A, and the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) Limited have already showed interest to help the authorities concerned to prepare such a rating document.