UK’s support changing as Bangladesh graduates from LDC, says High Commissioner Dickson

New British High Commissioner Robert C Dickson has said that the UK’s support to Bangladesh will see a change as the country is graduating from the LDC to a middle-income nation.

“The nature of our support will change,” Dickson said in a chat with bdnews24.com’s Editor-in-Chief Toufique Imrose Khalidi on Thursday.

The British diplomat visited bdnews24.com offices and sat down with Khalidi, discussing the effects of Brexit and how the UK can help Bangladesh to be a developed country.

Dickson said they would be providing less help to basic sanitation or nutrition which would be the responsibility of the government. They would focus more on economic reforms and strengthening institutions.

It will help Bangladesh attract private sector capital, he said, terming this as “fuel” of the country’s ambition to be a developed one by 2041.

Dickson presented his credentials on March 10 to President Md Abdul Hamid and said he has a “long list of things” to do with Bangladesh.

The UK is one the largest development partners of Bangladesh and remains the second biggest foreign investor.

More than 240 British companies are operating in sectors, including retail, banking, energy, infrastructure, consultancy and education with leading centres of operations in Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet.

About half a million Bangladeshi expatriates live in the UK. Both sides hold strategic dialogue at the government level.

New British High Commissioner Robert Dickson in a conversation with Editor-in-Chief Toufique Imrose Khalidi at the bdnews24.com offices in Dhaka on Thursday. Photo: Asif Mahmud Ove

It is an “exciting moment” for the UK as the Bangladesh economy is maturing with growth exceeding 8 percent for the first time, bright development indicators and the nation’s graduation from the LDC, according to Dickson.

“My agenda here is to build on what is already very strong relations between the UK and Bangladesh,” he said, adding that the UK’s ties with all South Asian countries and elsewhere become “more important” as Britain is going through the process of leaving the European Union.

“We are very keen to develop what we call a global Britain,” he said. “And we have very strong relations already with Bangladesh.”

About 600,000 people of Bangladeshi heritage in the UK, with strong links back here, are a “tremendous asset” for the relationship, he said, terming them as a “living bridge”.

There are specific issues to work on. For example, both countries will work together on climate change.

“We have been working together to deal with the consequences of the arrival of Rohingyas here in Bangladesh,” Dickson said.

The UK is a top donor when it comes to humanitarian assistance to Rohingyas. Dickson said they are also trying to push Myanmar to create conditions for Rohingyas enabling them to return home.

The situation is “also a bane for Myanmar because they would not be fully respected in the international community until the problem is solved”.

The UK has development programmes in Myanmar. But Dickson said his government has been “very clear that what’s going on is completely unacceptable.”

“We are supporting accountability and holding to account the people who did this.”

New British High Commissioner Robert Dickson in a conversation with Editor-in-Chief Toufique Imrose Khalidi at the bdnews24.com offices in Dhaka on Thursday. Photo: Asif Mahmud Ove

Asked to comment on the concerns of manpower shortage in British-Bangladeshi curry businesses in London, he said the issue around immigration and who can come and live in the UK is the one being addressed at the national level. And that is the way the solution needs to be found, he said.

The government is very clear to reduce the number of people arriving in Britain from hundreds of thousands to tens of thousands a year, he said.

“This is part of the debate that we are having in the UK that the economy is very much dependent in recent years on bringing people from outside.”

“As a result, we changed the basis on which people can come. And quite deliberately, we are no longer taking in people in large numbers, who don’t have skills to offer,” Dickson said.

As Britain is leaving the EU, a new trade agreement between the two countries must be in place.

“At the moment our trade relations rule done through the EU. And that has to reflect the interests of all 500 million people in the EU and clearly there is a special relationship between Bangladesh and the UK which is not really shared between Bangladesh and the other members of the European Union.”

“And it should be possible in due course, when we left the European Union, for us to construct a trade relationship which exactly matches the ambition we on the UK side have and the special relations we have with Bangladesh.”

New British High Commissioner Robert Dickson in a conversation with Editor-in-Chief Toufique Imrose Khalidi at the bdnews24.com offices in Dhaka on Thursday. Photo: Asif Mahmud Ove

On helping Bangladesh’s economic reforms, Dickson said it is “not a good thing” that Bangladesh was ranked 176th among 190 countries on the ease of doing business index.

“We will be working with the government on things like economic reforms, helping Bangladesh to attract private sector capital, making itself a more attractive investment destination.”

It is “laudable and entirely objective” to be a developed country by 2041, but “the secret to that is going to be drawing in private sector investments”.

“That’s the fuel,” he said, stressing the need for addressing the issues tied to the ease of doing business.

In the new journey, the UK would help the government build its institutions, and strengthen the civil service further, he said.

They would be happy to share some of the experiences to help Bangladeshi institutions work better both for delivering people and helping companies grow and invest here, Dickson said, as the UK ranks sixth on the ease of doing business index.