Schedules of Asia-Pacific LDC confce, BDF meeting changed

---

Nazmul Ahsan
The schedules of two important events have been changed because of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit to India and the Middle East.
The three-day conference of the least Developed Countries (LDCs) of Asia-Pacific will now be held in Dhaka between January 18 and January 20. The conference was, earlier, scheduled for January 12 and 14. The Prime Minister leaves Dhaka today (Sunday) for New Delhi on a four-day official visit to India.
The meeting of the Bangladesh Development Forum (BDF) has been re-scheduled on February 15 to 16, instead of February 12 to 13. The reason for changing the schedule, according to official sources, is the Prime Minister's visit to some Middle Eastern countries during that time.
However, the venue of both the meetings, the Pan-Pacific Sonargaon Hotel in Dhaka, has remained unchanged.
Officials in the Economic Relations Division (ERD) said both the meetings are important as far as foreign aid and external trade of the country are concerned.
The major agenda for the BDF meeting include Sixth Five-year Plan, Public-Private Partnership, social safety net, budget implementation, power, food security, employment and environment, sources said.
"The scheduled BDF meeting will be the first one during the tenure of the incumbent government. It is important to garner support of the donor community towards the development needs of the country", a top official in the ERD said.
"We are expecting positive results out of the forthcoming donor-government meeting", he said.
The local consultative group representing the 32 Dhaka-based bilateral and multilateral donor agencies and countries are expected to attend the forthcoming BDF meeting.
Heads of missions of Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States, among others, will soon be invited to attend the meeting, sources said.
Besides, mission heads of World Bank, Asian Development Bank, European Commission, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, International Monetary Fund, International Finance Corporation, United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Children's Fund and United Nations Population Fund, will also be invited.
The top officials in the Ministry of Finance said the government would seek additional fund from both bilateral and multilateral donors and lenders to help implement its Sixth Five -year Plan and large projects under the PPP at the BDF meeting.
Besides, enhanced fund would be sought to construct the Padma Bridge and Second Padma Bridge, they added.
Donors' funds will be sought as budgetary support as well, a high official said.
Presently, country receives foreign aid to the tune of about 2.0 billion per year. Total amount of aid (loans and grants) disbursed by multilateral and bilateral donors stood at $ 1.72 billion in FY 2008-2009 and $2.06 billion in FY 2007-2008, according to the Foreign Aid data of the ERD.
On the other hand, issues centering on trade, aid, food security, environment and poverty of the LDCs are major areas will be discussed at the high-level Asia-Pacific least developed countries (LDCs) conference in Dhaka, ERD officials said.
The LDC conference will also evaluate the progress towards implementation of the Brussels Programme of Action, which was adopted during the third UN sponsored LDC conference in 2001, sources in the ERD said.
Meanwhile, the Economic Relations Division (ERD) has undertaken a study on the implementation of commitments made by developed countries towards enhanced trade and official development assistance to LDCs during the third LDC conference about 10 years back, sources said.
The Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) of the United Nations and the Bangladesh government will jointly organize the meeting. A consensus among 13 Asia-Pacific LDCs on major issues is considered important ahead of the 4th UN- sponsored LDC conference to be held in Turkey in May 2011.
The 13 countries falling under the Asia-Pacific LDCs are-Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Kiribati, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Tuvalu, the Maldives and Vanuatu.
The finance and trade ministers of LDCs concerned will attend the meeting, sources said.