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Concessional loans to be phased out: Muhith

Star Business Report
Bangladesh will no longer enjoy concessional loans once it graduates from the least-developed country bracket, said Finance Minister AMA Muhith yesterday.
"We will have to be cautious so that we do not get entrapped in the quicksand of loans,” he told a press conference at his secretariat office to inform about the celebrations scheduled for today to celebrate the country's graduation.
The government will have to adopt various policies to soften the effects of
graduation, he said.
However, the graduation would give a psychological boost to the country for the fact that it would no more be at the receiving end of donors and would see an increase in foreign direct investment.
He said he was personally proud of the progress the country has made.
"We were so down the line and now we have climbed up," Muhith said, adding that the country has more responsibilities now, to wit to those who are below Bangladesh.
The finance minister said the concept of LDCs originated in the late 1960s and the first group of LDCs comprising only 18 countries was listed by the United Nations in 1971. Bangladesh was not in that list.
The Committee for Development Policy, a subsidiary advisory body of the United Nations Economic and Social Council, in a review in 1975 enlisted the four-year-old Bangladesh as an LDC, he added.
MA Mannan, state minister for finance and planning, said he wanted to share his happiness just as common people were doing for becoming eligible for graduation.
"Many doors will now open for Bangladesh," said Abul Kalam Azad, chief coordinator for Sustainable Development Goals Affairs in the Prime Minister's Office.
The new opportunities would make up for the few privileges that would be lost for graduation from the LDC bracket. The next target for Bangladesh is to move to the higher middle-income country and for that it needs to treble its Gross National Income, according to Azad.
“This success came from political leadership and people's hard work," said Md Nojibur Rahman, principal secretary to the PMO.
Kazi Shofiqul Azam, secretary to the Economic Relations Division (ERD), said there was no relation of the graduation with the interest rate increase on foreign debt.
"The interest rate will automatically increase with GNI,” he said, adding that the World Bank and Japan International Cooperation Agency, the two major lenders, have already proposed increasing the interest rates as Bangladesh's per capita income has increased.
In another press briefing in the National Economic Council conference room, Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said Bangladesh would not face any kind of major challenge and financial loss for graduation.
“Export will not decline as a developing country; rather, our bargaining power will be enhanced," he said, while calling for diversification of products and destinations.
He also said Bangladesh would be in a position to negotiate for big credits as it would be able to tolerate
huge external debt burdens.
The graduation required Bangladesh to meet all three criteria: GNI per capita, Human Assets Index (HAI) and Economic Vulnerability Index (EVI).
According to the UN's graduation threshold, the GNI per capita of a country has to be $1,230 or above. Bangladesh's GNI per capita is now $1,272.
In terms of the HAI, a country must have a score of 66 or above. Bangladesh's score is now 72.8 - well above the threshold.
The HAI is an indicator of infant mortality, maternal mortality, adult schooling and adult literacy, nutrition, health and secondary school enrolment rate. In the EVI, a country's score has to be 32 or below. Bangladesh's score is 25.
The Committee for Development Policy will review Bangladesh's progress in 2021.
Bangladesh's official graduation from the LDC category will take place after a three-year transition period.
If it maintains its position in all three categories for the next six years, it will eventually graduate from the LDC category.