Today, Professor Muhammad Yunus, the Chief Adviser, requested assistance from the US to rebuild Bangladesh, implement crucial reforms, and retrieve embezzled property.
When a powerful US delegation met him at the State Guest House Jamuna in Dhaka, he asked for help.
The Chief Adviser outlined the difficulties the interim government is experiencing and stated that his administration has made rapid progress in implementing measures to “reset, reform, and restart” the financial sector, the economy, and institutions like the police and courts.
“It is a very important time for us and a significant moment in our history,” he said, as he spoke about the student-led revolution, which has ushered in a new era of hope in Bangladesh.
The 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner gave an outline of the reform initiatives undertaken by the interim government and said six commissions have been set up barely weeks after his government took over in an effort to prevent vote rigging and reform judiciary, police, civil administration and the country’s anti-graft agency and to amend the constitution.
Prof Yunus said his government was committed to getting back the stolen assets siphoned off by corrupt individuals linked with the previous autocratic regime.
“We were in an ocean of corruption,” the Chief Adviser said, while describing the challenges the government faces to tackle graft.
The US delegation commended Prof. Yunus’s leadership and stated that Washington, DC, would be pleased to support his reform plan. Prof. Nieman is the assistant secretary of the US Treasury Department.
US officials expressed their eagerness to provide financial and technical support for the reforms being implemented by the interim government.
The topics covered during the hour-long conversation included labor issues, investment, financial and economic reforms, the Rohingya situation, and the Chief Adviser’s impending trip to New York to attend the UN General Assembly.
Donald Lu, the US Assistant Secretary of State; Brendan Lynch, Assistant US Trade Representative; Anjali Kaur, Deputy Assistant Administrator; and Jerrod Mason, a Director of the US Treasury Department; represented the US in the meeting.
Lutfey Siddiqi, the special envoy of the Chief Adviser on international affairs; Lamiya Morshed, senior secretary and the head of SDG affairs, Md. Jashim Uddin, foreign secretary, and Md. Shahriar Kader Siddiky, secretary of the Economic Relations Division, also attended the meeting.
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