Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said Bangladesh made unprecedented development in the last 10 years, especially in the fields of agriculture, industry, trade and services.

He thanked the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) for its support to develop the rural economy including agriculture, rural infrastructure, climate change issue and women's empowerment.

Kamal’s remarks came a meeting of the finance ministry with the delegation of IFAD, an institution of the UN, on Wednesday at his Secretariat office.  

The newly appointed country director of IFAD Arnoud Hameleers led its delegation and economic relation division (ERD) secretary Fatima Yasmin led Bangladesh side. Both IFAD and finance ministry officials were present in the meeting.

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The finance minister requested IFAD to finance Bangladesh on easy terms for food processing like other development partners to address future climate change and SDG challenges.

The minister expressed hope that the 8th five year plan, SDG and Covid-19 would play a positive role of IFAD funding in Bangladesh to meet the challenges.

Finance minister said that when there were 1 billion people in the world, countless people were still starving, but today the population of the world is over 7 billion. Even then, it goes without saying that people do not go hungry.

He highly appreciated the contribution of various organizations and farmers of Bangladesh involved in agricultural development including international organizations like IFAD and FAO.