UK, Japan to support Bangladesh for further economic growth

The assurance came when a two-member joint delegation of the two major donors met Prime Minister Khaleda Zia at her office yesterday.

The team comprises UK Department for International Development (DFID) Permanent Secretary Suma Chakraborty and Deputy Director General of Japan's Economic Cooperation Bureau Kazuo Kodama.

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During the meeting, they congratulated the prime minister as Bangladesh made "impressive progress" towards attaining the Millennium Development Goals as well as in other fields.

After taking a firsthand view of the ground realities, the two donor representatives remarked that the country was now "prepared to get into higher growth stride".

Kazua Kodama informed the prime minister that Japan provided Bangladesh Tk 613 crore in loan two weeks ago for rural infrastructure development.

The donor representatives assured the prime minister of all cooperation for further development.

The UK and Japan are the "trusted friends of Bangladesh", said the duo, who are here assessing the prospects for gearing up their development cooperation.

Mentioning their contribution and assistance to various sectors in Bangladesh, the prime minister thanked both Japan and UK governments and hoped for further cooperation.

She particularly cited British support in poverty-reduction drive, such as Char livelihood programme, and Japan's debt cancellation of $1.49 billion and assistance for construction the Jamuna Bridge.

On social infrastructure, she sought cooperation from them in imparting training to civil servants while physical infrastructure-development assistance is needed in transport, power, irrigation and education sectors.

Responding to the prime minister, the visiting foreign delegation assured of extending support to that end.

Appreciating the contents in Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) like poverty reduction through economic growth, improvement of infrastructure and participation of private sector, they remarked, "We will be behind it and support it."

They also praised remarkable improvement in the security and law and order situation in Bangladesh.

British Department for International Development (DFID) Dhaka representative David Wood, who was also in the meeting, said Bangladesh still does not get proper publicity of its achievements in various fields in the external world.

The DFID representative expressed interest in extending cooperation in external publicity for a better recognition of Bangladesh's achievement.

Among various other development issues, development of ports was also discussed at the meeting.

British High Commissioner Anwar Chowdhury and Japanese Ambassador in Dhaka Matsushiro Horiguchi accompanied the

delegation.