Kamal seeks IFC’s support to create Bangla bond vibrant
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has requested the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to take initiatives to help make the Bangla bond vibrant.
He developed the request on October 29 during a virtual ending up in the top-brass of the private sector lending arm of the World Bank, on the sidelines of the gross annual meeting of the World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund.
The IFC issued its inaugural bond in Bangladeshi taka, raising Tk 80.7 crore, or around $9.5 million on November 11 this past year. The bond was listed on the London Stock Exchange.
The IFC had earlier expressed an idea to float $1 billion in Bangla bonds, however the process slowed because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Kamal went on expressing the hope that the IFC would take the mandatory measures to improve the Bangla bond. He also asked the lending company to greatly help the country's private sector, which includes been hit hard by the Covid-19 fallout.
"The IFC should reduce the interest rate on its lending to the country's private sector in a way that businesses could make a turnaround in the quickest possible time," Kamal said in a news release.
The arm of the World Bank will invest the fund, which is mobilised by issuing Bangla bonds, in the country's private sector.
He sought cooperation from the IFC for the development of fixed-income securities, especially the bond market in Bangladesh. The IFC assured Kamal that it would look into the issues raised by Bangladesh positively, the press release said.
The finance minister thanked the IFC for disbursing $8 billion among its member countries to fight the financial hardship due to the deadly virus.
The government is currently working on restructuring the financial sector and interest capping, said Abdur Rouf Talukder, finance secretary.
The Financial Institutions Division is working on the Solvency Act, the lender Company Act and the Asset Management Company Act, that will play an important role in restructuring the financial sector, he said.
Three pharmaceutical companies in Bangladesh will work to enhance their capability in a way that they are able to manufacture Covid-19 vaccines locally within six months once they are invented, Talukder said.
"It is not possible to import all of the vaccines to be needed for our huge population. We must give utmost importance to producing vaccines locally," he said.
Huge investment will be had a need to produce the vaccines and the IFC provides the support to this end, he said.
Stephanie von Friedeburg, chief operating officer of the IFC, Alfonso Garcia Mora, vice-president for Asia and the Pacific of the IFC, and Mohammad Shafiul Alam, another executive director of the WB, also took part in the meeting.
