Govt wants to shift from Chinese loans to investment

Khosru says

Bangladesh is pushing to move its financing partnership with China from loans to investment, Finance Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury said yesterday on the sidelines of the IMF-World Bank annual meetings in Bangkok.

“We are gradually moving away from the state-to-state model towards investment and partnership,” he said after meetings with the Chinese Exim Bank and the US Treasury.

“Future Chinese financing should shift from loans to investment, and we hope for a joint change in this regard,” he added.

Emphasising joint and direct investment, he said: “Our main economic policy focus is on investment. We are moving away from loans.”

He added that he had held long discussions with the Exim Bank.

He also met the US Treasury, where talks covered American assistance, debt management and Bangladesh-US relations. They also discussed grants from a US agency.

“We have not received much in the past,” he said.

Bangladesh had told the US side that the relationship had reached a stage where it was buying aircraft, oil, soybeans and other commodities from the United States, he said. The imports were also helping reduce the trade imbalance.

“The time has come for US support to flow. If not now, when?” he said. “They have agreed to support. Let’s see.”

Separately, Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir, the prime minister’s adviser on finance and planning, said development partners had expressed confidence in the government’s strategy to revive the economy.

Partners agreed the government was addressing a fragile economy transparently and trying to rein in inflation and ease the fuel burden despite the Middle East crisis, and welcomed safety net programmes such as the Family Card and Farmers Card.

He said the tax system would be digitised and harassment reduced without raising rates. The tax-GDP ratio (tax collection as a share of the economy), below 7 percent under the previous government, was showing signs of improvement.