Hasina meets OIC chief, IDB vice president in Saudi Arabia

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has met the top officials of OIC and IDB during on her second day of Saudi Arabia visit.

On Saturday, she also laid the foundation stone of the Bangladesh embassy complex, to be built in the Saudi capital Riyadh, from the Jeddah Conference Palace, where she has been staying during the five-day visit.

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) chief Iyad bin Amin Madani praised Hasina for empowerment of women in Bangladesh.

Secretary General Madani said that the OIC itself wants to highlight the issue of woman empowerment and wants to use Bangladesh’s experience, Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque told the media after the meeting.

The OIC top official also praised Bangladesh’s success in microcredit, he added.

Haque said that the Hasina and Madani also discussed ways to improve trade between OIC member nations.

During her call on with Islamic Development Bank Vice President Ahmet Tiktik, Hasina urged the multilateral lender to cut its interest rates.

“The prime minister proposed an interest cut to make IDB loan’s competitive,” Foreign Secretary Haque said after the media.

An IDB concern, the Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC), handles loans given to member countries. Bangladesh takes ITFC loans mainly to finance oil imports.

Hasina also expressed Bangladesh’s interest to be a part of IDB’s upcoming initiative, the Islamic Infrastructure Bank, said the foreign secretary.

He said that the IDB will open five offices in different countries this year and one of them will be in Bangladesh.

On Saturday, the prime minister also laid the foundation stone of the Bangladesh embassy complex, to be built in the Saudi capital Riyadh, from Jeddah.