bdnews24.com :
Bangladesh chapter of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) has welcomed the government’s move to join the China’s latest version of World Bank.
“Definitely we welcome this,” its President Mahbubur Rahman said on Sunday replying a question at a press briefing at the closing of a two-day international conference in Dhaka.
ICC organised the conference on ‘Global Economic Recovery: Asian Perspective’ in Dhaka, marking 20 years anniversary of the world’s business organisation’s presence in Bangladesh.
About 450 business leaders of more than 10 countries of this nearly a century old business organisaiton joined the conference. Bangladesh’s President Md Abdul Hamid opened it on Saturday.
On the closing notes, the conference stressed more on China and India relations for the economic growth of this region.
” Relations between China and India will be critical in shaping the Asian agenda of the future,” President Rahman said.
The business leaders in the summary also recommended political cooperation and regional integration and robust fiscal management some of the issues that would take Asia forward.
They also termed good governance and inclusive politics as “essential prerequisites” for accelerated investment and growth.
However, the leaders of the ICC that also works closely with the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank did not discuss anything on the China’s new investment bank. Rahman said it was a new initiative. “They are yet to start”.
“But definitely we as ICC Bangladesh welcome the move,” he said in his brief response.
Vice-president Latifur Rahman and executive member Barrister Rafique-ul-Huq were also present at the press briefing.
Bangladesh was one of the 21 countries including China who signed MoU on Friday to become a member of China’s Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).
Brunei, Cambodia, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, the Philippines, Qatar, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Uzbekistan and Vietnam are the other countries who signed the MoU on Friday. However, the US had concerns about the new rival to Western-dominated multilateral lenders.
The AIIB has been as a challenge to the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, both of which count Washington and its allies as their biggest financial backers.
China, which is keen to extend its influence and soft power in the region, has limited voting rights in these existing banks despite being the world’s second-largest economy and first as purchasing power parity (PPP)basis.
The Friday MOU specifies that the authorised capital of AIIB is $ 100 billion and the initial subscribed capital is expected to be around $ 50 billion.
Headquartered in Paris, ICC began its journey soon after the World War-I. Currently 127 countries are its members.
