The opening of IFAD's host country office by in Bangladesh has been languishing for years, as the ministry of finance (MoF) repeatedly remains non-responsive to providing its opinion on the draft agreement, officials said.
The Economic Relations Division (ERD) has sent at least four letters to the ministry of finance seeking its opinion on the proposed agreement since January last year, but all went in vain, they said.
Meantime, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and finance minister AMA Muhith on several occasions pledged to extend cooperation in this connection.
Officials said the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a specialised United Nations agency dedicated to eradicating poverty and hunger in rural areas of developing countries, wanted to open a host country office in Bangladesh.
In late 2016, IFAD forwarded a draft agreement seeking Bangladesh government's opinion, which will pave the way for opening such an office in Dhaka.
Subsequently, in January last year, the ERD forwarded the draft agreement to the ministry of finance seeking its opinion.
Meantime, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina attended the IFAD governing council meeting in Rome in February this year where she promised to extend necessary cooperation in setting up the office in Bangladesh.
As one and a half years has elapsed since sending its first letter, the ERD drew the attention of the finance ministry again in June this year.
In the first week of August, an associate vice president of the IFAD, who is also director for Asia and the Pacific region of the organisation, at a meeting with finance minister, principal secretary to the prime minister, and secretary to the ERD requested all to resolve the matter.
After that, the ERD on August 09 sent another letter to the finance ministry seeking its opinion on the draft agreement.
In the letter, the ERD noted that due to the non-availability of opinion, the host country agreement could not be signed with the IFAD.
As a result, the IFAD country director could not start the activities of the host country office until now in Bangladesh.
However, this effort also remained futile like the previous attempts.
Lastly, on October 21, the ERD again sent a letter to the MoF, which the office of the finance division received the following day.
The secretary then forwarded the letter to an additional secretary for taking necessary steps.
Contacted over telephone on Friday, secretary in charge of finance division Abdur Rouf Talukder, could not recollect whether any such matter remained pending or not.
"I'm not aware about it. I have to check," he said.
The IFAD has host country agreement with several countries such as India, Indonesia, Cambodia, Sudan, Haiti, Ghana, and Zambia.
Bangladesh signed and ratified the agreement relating to the establishment of IFAD in March and May of 1977 respectively. The IFAD was founded in December 1977, headquartered in Rome, Italy.
IFAD has remained present in Bangladesh for almost 40 years and been investing in poor rural women and men to help them ameliorate their condition.
Since 1979, IFAD has supported 33 projects in Bangladesh where it contributed US$ 848 million, directly benefiting over 11 million rural households.
syful-islam@outlook.com