Finance adviser Salehuddin Ahmed on Sunday expressed displeasure with the queries from multilateral lenders while seeking additional fund for reforms aiming at reviving the economy wounded deeply during the past 15 years of the Awami League regime.
They were asking so many questions as if they were grilling, said the finance adviser, referring to the joint meeting of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund he attended in October in Washington.
‘I responded to their queries successfully,’ Salehuddin said, adding that at one point he had asked them that why they did not ask the same questions in the past 15 years.
The finance adviser was addressing the annual conference of the International Business Forum of Bangladesh in the capital Dhaka.
He was also disappointed with the commodity market and the price issues despite a cut in duties on many imported products.
Terming extortion as the main problem for the price hike, he lamented that a compromise on extortion was lot easier than a political compromise.
He was critical to the multilateral lenders’ bureaucratic approach as he was commenting on an observation made by Centre for Policy Dialogue distinguished fellow Debapriya Bhattacharya.
Debapriya who was the conference speaker said that the country’s development partners could not avoid the responsibility for ailing socio-economy of Bangladesh.
The development partners were lenient towards the so called narratives on development by the Awami League regime with protracted periods of deceptive data, lax financial management, reckless macroeconomic management, public finance pilferage and external sector imbalances, he said.
Commenting on demands for the election roadmap by politicians, Debapriya said that only successful economic reform and maintenance of law and order could ensure that.
On reforms, the finance adviser said that it was difficult to bring about positive changes amid the presence of vested quarters.
He was annoyed with critics of the share market reform and the imposition of fine on cricketer Shakib Al Hasan, saying that the fine should have been imposed two years ago.
IBFB president Humayun Rashid gave the opening remarks at the conference and the US Aid mission director Reed J Aeschiman attended it as the special guest.
Formed in 2005, the IBFB is a research and advocacy based non-profit and non-partisan business forum working as a bridge between the private sector stakeholders and the government.
