The United Kingdom has expressed interest to help Bangladesh reform its banking and revenue sectors as well as the capital market.

British High Commissioner Sarah Cooke conveyed this desire to Finance Adviser Dr Salehuddin Ahmed during a meeting on Tuesday at the Economic Relations Division (ERD) office at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar.

After the meeting, the adviser said the UK is willing to help Bangladesh particularly on reforming banking and revenue sectors along with capital market reforms.

UK offers support for Bangladesh’s banking, revenue, and capital market reforms

“Those are very immediate concerns for us also, because unless we make the reforms it would be difficult for us” to take the economy ahead, he told reporters after the meeting.

The adviser said that they also discussed about enhancement of trade and commerce between the two countries.

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“We want that the trade and commerce should flourish. The UK government was very very helpful in the past and I hope that they will be helpful in the coming days. We are looking forward for their help and cooperation,” he said.

The meeting also discussed the cooperation between Bangladesh and the United Kingdom.

He mentioned that the UK will continue working with Bangladesh in economic development and women empowerment.

“Private sector investment is also very very important. Big business houses of Britain have invested here,” he added.

Dr Salehuddin said that he told the British envoy that Bangladesh, which exports mainly readymade garments to the UK and the other European countries want to diversify the export items.

He also said that to attract more private investment Bangladesh has to improve the country's business environment.

“… we need ease of doing business that means we have to fix the climate of doing business. Otherwise private sector will not come,” he said.

Mentioning that the discussion was very fruitful, the British high commissioner said that he country and Bangladesh have a very strong economic, trade and investment relations.

“We’re very keen to expand our trade and investment ties and we also discussed how the UK can support the economic reforms in Bangladesh that the Adviser is leading and how we may work together to bring our experts together to discuss the issues of economic reforms and also how we can boost our trade and investment ties between the two countries.”

Responding to a question on mobilising more FDI from the UK, she said that Britain has a very strong partnership with Bangladesh.

“We’ve a very strong and investment environment. Off course, we would like to see more FDI into Bangladesh,” she said.

The envoy said the British investors are responsible investors. “I discussed with the adviser how we can build investors’ confidence and strengthen our trade and investment ties.”

Replying to another question, Sarah Cooke said she discussed with the finance adviser the economic reforms that Bangladesh is prioritising and how the UK can support Bangladesh in this regard.