Bangladesh is expected to get around 2.0 per cent voting right in the Shanghai-based New Development Bank (NDB) as it has recently been selected as the sixth shareholding member, officials said here on Thursday.
Bangladesh will have to pay the first instalment of US$15 million in mid-March of next year out of its $942 million worth of shares in the bank, officials at the Ministry of Finance (MoF) said.
It will have to pay a total of $188 million in seven incremental instalments annually as payable subscription fee while the remaining $754 million will be considered as the "callable fee" which it will not have to pay at this moment, ERD officials said.
After payment of the first instalment, the country will qualify for obtaining loans from the multilateral lender against different projects and programmes, said a senior official at the Economic Relations Division (ERD).
In September last, Bangladesh obtained around 1.0 per cent share in the multilateral development bank, established by the BRICS member countries - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
"Before paying the subscription fee, a law has to be formulated regarding the NDB for seeking support from the bank. The law is expected to be passed by January next year," said a senior official at the ERD.
At present, Bangladesh would get 1.84 per cent voting right in the NDB board while it will be one of the governors and also the alternative governors.
"When more members will join as shareholders against half ($50 billion) of the total $100 billion paid-up capital, Bangladesh's voting rights will be reduced. But it will not be less than 1.04 per cent," he said.
A MoF official said they were ready to pay the first instalment of the subscription after completing the official formalities in the next few months.
Earlier, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal requested the NDB President to provide Bangladesh more than 1.0 per cent share instead of its primary offer of 0.76 per cent share.
In September this year, the bank's board had approved membership of three countries -- Bangladesh, the United Arab Emirates and Uruguay. Bangladesh then negotiated with the lender for getting more than 1.0 per cent stake.
The NDB's founding members made an initial subscription of 500,000 shares totalling US$50 billion, which include 100,000 thousand shares corresponding to a paid-in capital of US$10 billion and 400,000 shares corresponding to a callable capital of US$40 billion.
The initial subscribed capital was equally distributed amongst the founding members of BRICS nations. Membership of the bank is open to members of the United Nations.
In 2016, Bangladesh joined the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).
The Beijing-based lender has been financing many projects in Bangladesh in several sectors, such as power, transportation, water supply and sanitation.
After the independence of Bangladesh in 1971, many multilateral and bilateral donors, including the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, Japan, the Islamic Development Bank, UKAID, and USAID, have provided loans and grants for developing the country's infrastructure and reducing hunger.
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