Commonwealth secretary-general Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey said on Tuesday that they were keen to support Bangladesh in political reforms ahead of the planned general election next year.
鈥榃e will be happy to provide the support if Bangladesh requires it, especially the support for constitutional reforms,鈥� Shirley said as she called on visiting Bangladesh chief adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus at his hotel in London.
She said that supporting member states in harnessing democracy and good governance is one of the key priorities for the organisation in the next five years, according to a press release issued by the chief adviser鈥檚 press wing from London.
Their other priorities were boosting trade and investment and supporting members fighting climate change, she said.
Noting that the Commonwealth is a platform of 2.7 billion people, the Ghanaian national said that currently, the annual trade among the member states stood around 850 billion USD and that they had a plan to raise it to at least one trillion dollars in the coming years, the release mentioned.
Shirley said that many of the Commonwealth members were affected by climate change, and many of these member countries were small in size.
鈥榃e will be trying to help them get access to climate finance,鈥� she was quoted to have told the meeting.
Chief adviser Muhammad Yunus urged the Commonwealth Secretary General to explore the potential of sports and increase youth engagement among the member states.
鈥楽ports are not just a form of entertainment but a kind of social orientation. We are encouraging sportspeople to become entrepreneurs. Sports can be a good way for the Commonwealth to be remembered,鈥� said the chief adviser.
The Commonwealth secretary general said that they were going to hold a youth programme in Dhaka this month.
She said that 1.5 billion people of the Commonwealth population were young, and they were trying to engage them in different activities.
She said that they were also planning to revamp Commonwealth scholarships for students, an area that the Chief Adviser said should get priority.
National Security Adviser Khalilur Rahman, chief adviser鈥檚 special envoy Lutfey Siddiqi, senior secretary for SDG affairs Lamiya Morshed, and Bangladesh High Commissioner to the UK Abida Islam were among others present on the occasion.
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