World Bank MD wishes to meet BNP, finance minister discourages

The visiting World Bank Managing Director (MD) of Operations, Anna Bjerde, had expressed interest in meeting BNP representatives during a meeting with Finance Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali, but was discouraged by him. 

"As background, I told her [Bjerde] that they [World Bank] want to meet those [BNP] who do not want to participate in the democratic process," Mahmood Ali said while talking to reporters after the meeting at his office in the capital's Agargaon today (25 February). 

"I told her what Khaleda Zia said about Padma bridge, how she said 'the bridge could collapse at any time as the Awami League government made it with patchwork' and advised people not to use it," he added. 

Regarding the discussion, Mahmood Ali said, "The problems Bangladesh is facing are not new. The World Bank appreciated how Bangladesh deals with these issues," he said. 

The meeting, which lasted more than an hour from 9:40am to 11am at the ERD building in Agargaon, was attended by Finance Secretary Khairuzzaman Mozumder, ERD Secretary Md Shahriar Kader Siddiky, World Bank Vice President for South Asia Martin Raiser, and senior officials from the World Bank's Dhaka office.