US to offer all kinds of support for reform

When Sheikh Hasina's government fell on August 5 in a mass uprising, an interim government was formed with Muhammad Yunus as the chief adviser on August 8. The main goal of this government is to make necessary reforms in various sectors of the state to establish Bangladesh as a truly democratic country. The United States has offered to provide all kinds of assistance to Bangladesh in its reform. Brent Neiman, Deputy Under Secretary for International Finance at the US Department of the Treasury, and Anjali Kaur, Deputy Assistant Administrator of the Bureau for Asia, USAID, have expressed such sentiment while talking to Samakal during their Dhaka visit. 

An abbreviated version of the interview by Tasnim Mohsin is as follows:

Samakal: At the very beginning, Brent, I want to know from you about the trade and investment opportunities here in Bangladesh. You know we are having a crisis moment right now, so we need more investment here in Bangladesh. From that perspective, what opportunities do you see for enhancing economic cooperation and collaboration between Bangladesh and the US- Especially in sectors like trade, investment, and technology? 

Brent Neiman: As you know, the investment and trade ties between the US and Bangladesh are very strong and have been, for a long time. The US is the largest importer of Bangladesh's exports, and actually the largest provider of inward foreign direct investment into Bangladesh. So the relationship is strong and of course, those figures grew on the backs of significant growth over several decades in Bangladesh. 

I think the key to making sure that those ties can in fact grow and deepen, is to make sure that Bangladesh can continue on its trajectory of sustained growth, and toward that end, we've been working together. 

Today we met with counterparts, Bangladeshi authorities, to talk about some of the challenges that Bangladesh is facing, things like the need to improve the business environment and rule out corruption, things like appropriately setting monitoring fiscal policies, and we look forward to working together with Bangladesh and offering support any way we can toward making the reforms and enhancing the environment, which I think will lead to even stronger economic ties between the US and Bangladesh. 

Samakal:  Anjali, I would like to hear from you... It's about enhanced cooperation. If I talk about the primary areas, where the US sees potential to enhance cooperation with Bangladesh? Especially, if I mention the terms about the development, governance reforms, and also capacity-building initiatives. 

Anjali Kaur: We're here at a historically critical juncture for Bangladesh. And so for this delegation to be here today is very important for all of us. USAID has worked with Bangladesh for over 5 decades now, and in this relationship, we have worked across sectors in the entire country and we have focused on lifting up the people of Bangladesh.  In partnership. That has been our model, to do everything in partnership, with the government and with the people of Bangladesh. 

We've worked across a number of different areas, so it has been... economic growth and stability, we focused on environmental conservation, clean energy, climate resilience, we focused on education, we focused on health, we've also focused on being able to provide humanitarian assistance, in disaster risk support, and we've also looked at how to make sure democracy, rights and governance are accrued to, as you remarked on.

Something new we've been able to do is to provide additional support for flooding to areas we've never done before. I've already seen flooding support to Sylhet but now we are going to Chattogram, to new areas. We are doing longer-term development. I think you've seen we've just signed an agreement of over $200 million and this comes at a really critical time for us.