The People’s Republic of Bangladesh and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Group on Thursday signed a Host Country Agreement (HCA) for the launch of the IDB Group’s Country Gateway Office (CGO)in the capital city of Dhaka.
The document was signed between Bangladeshi Minister of Finance HE Abdul Maal A. Muhith and IDB Group President, Dr. Ahmad Mohamed Ali.
At the signing ceremony which took place in Jeddah, KSA, Dr. Ali, praised 41 years of solid relations between IDB Group and Bangladesh as a founding and supportive member of the Bank. “Currently, the volume of approved IDB Group financings with Bangladesh stands at US $18.6 billion, the highest amount of financing ever approved by the 56 IDB member countries”, stated Dr. Ali at the meeting. So far the approvals include major financings covering power, agriculture, irrigation, water supply,
mining, roads, education and rural development as well as hundreds of foreign trade operations aimed at enhancing intra-trade amongst member countries.
Elsewhere in his remarks, the IDB Group President further underlined that the decision to launch a CGO in Bangladesh is the culmination of several factors including the country’s outstanding and solid cooperation with the IDB Group, the high economic growth rate in recent years as well as the recent World Bank’s ranking of Bangladesh as the medium income countries. He further expressed hope that the CGO will leave a positive impact in increasing the continued cooperation between Bangladesh and
the IDB Group.
The launching comes in the wake of a decision by the Board of Executive Directors of the Bank to establish CGOs in five member countries namely, Turkey, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Nigeria and Egypt. CGOs in Indonesia and Turkey are already operational and preparations are underway to see the formations streamlined in Nigeria and Egypt.