Economic state is very fragile, says new special assistant to CA

Anisuzzaman Chowdhury believes it is 'possible' to bring back the laundered money

Anisuzzaman Chowdhury, special assistant to the Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus on the finance ministry, has said the country's economy is "very fragile" and getting out of this phase will be the priority of his work.

While speaking to journalists at the Secretariat on Tuesday for the first time after taking charge as a special assistant in the rank of a state minister, the professor of Macroeconomic Policy & Development Division at Australia’s Western Sydney University, said: "The state of the economy is very fragile. There's no opportunity to say much more.

“The chief advisor compared the economy with Gaza City yesterday. The hint is enough to understand the circumstances.”

Highlighting that everything in the economy, including investment and employment, is connected, he said: "You call a government interim. This word itself is problematic for investment.

“An investor will think about the sustainability of these interim policies before investing as politics and economics are interlinked."

STOLEN MONEY WILL BE BACK

Commenting that it is possible to bring back the laundered money, Anisuzzaman said: "It is very possible. You'll just be strong. Many have offered to return the money. Our biggest asset is the chief advisor.

"The countries where the money has gone are the beneficiaries. There is international law, and since they are the beneficiaries, they will not leave it easily. But they are offering to help the chief advisor in this regard. We are working very fast. I hope we succeed."

Asked who had made the proposal, he said: "It is not possible to say as we need to maintain confidentiality to avoid problems at work.

"There are legal issues here, proper laws have to be made in line with the relevant country. There are several ways here. We have international cooperation in this area. Many, including the World Bank, are working."

Noting that various development data of Bangladesh are not reliable, the former professor said, Bangladesh has not provided trade data to the UN since 2015. The data is crucial to prevent money laundering through misinvoicing in global trade.”

Speaking about his priority in the field of work, Anisuzzaman said: "Some work has to be done on the development narrative that has been created for LDC graduation on the basis of fake information.

“The foreign debt has gone above $100 billion. The growth rate of external debt has increased significantly since 2010. At the same time, domestic resource mobilisation has been greatly reduced.

“At one time, 'our' tax to GDP ratio was 11/12 percent. Now it's down to 7 percent. So I have to focus on internal resource management. We also need to shed light on the stock market."