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all-out cooperation in the country's efforts to face the challenges
of the global recession. Zoellick gave the assurance while talking to
Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Atiur Rahman at a session ahead of the
World Bank/IMF Annual Meetings in Istanbul. The Bangladesh Bank
governor presented a keynote paper at the conference on "
Strengthening Remittance Flows and Impact: Policies, Practices,
Prospects" at Istanbul Congress Centre. "The World Bank president
wanted to know what they can do for Bangladesh," Rahman told the
news agency by telephone from Istanbul. He said Zoellick was present
at the session without any prior schedule and appreciated the
measures Bangladesh has taken so far, particularly the Bangladesh
Bank's steps to boost agriculture credit to sustain economic growth
amid recession. The central bank governor apprised the session of the
measures while presenting the keynote paper titled "Macroeconomic
policy challenges of large remittance inflows". "The World Bank
president appreciated the measures and assured all cooperation to
Bangladesh," he said. The governor said remittance inflows from
migrant workers have for some years now been playing a major role in
underpinning external sector viability of balance of payments of
Bangladesh. Contrary to apprehensions, workers' remittance inflows to
Bangladesh grew buoyantly during the global financial turmoil. But
the challenge is that a major part of remittance inflows go into
consumption expenses while around 40 percent is utilised for
acquisition of capital assets and/or for financing migration and
costs of job acquisition abroad for other family members or
relations. Rahman said the central bank has adopted various financial
sector policy measures supporting and promoting lending to under-
served productive real sectors including agriculture, SMEs, renewable
energy and environmental protection.
