Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus on Tuesday had brief interactions separately with a number of leaders as COP29, UN's biggest climate conference, is underway. Prof Yunus met with Prime Minister Daniel Risch of Liechtenstein and Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay of Bhutan. He also met with President Mohamed Muizzu of the Maldives and President Denis Becriovic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Read: COP29: “Won’t revert back to the energy system of the 1950s,” says US top climate negotiator

Foreign Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud on Tuesday said BNP has gone “insane,” from global leaders congratulating the new government under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. “I had 17 bilateral meetings during my visit to Ugandan capital Kampala, though we were there for two days only. And I exchanged greetings with at least another 17 as we were in the same hall. Each and everyone has congratulated the government under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina," he told reporters in a post-visit press conference at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Foreign Minister said BNP leader Ruhul Kabir Rizvi used to “talk nonsense” but now that has intensified even more. Hasan Mahmud said all countries have expressed willingness to work together with the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Regarding Awami League Working Committee’s decision to not back candidates with the party's electoral symbol in the upazila elections, the AL joint general secretary said such elections were held in the past without party symbols, including after AL's return to power in 2009. Hasan Mahmud returned home on Tuesday after attending the two-day 3rd South Summit that ended in Ugandan capital Kampala on Monday. During his four-day visit, he also led the Bangladesh delegation in the 19th NAM Summit. The Foreign Minister led the Bangladesh delegation in the third South Summit and delivered a national statement. The South Summit is the supreme decision-making body of the Group of 77. High-level representatives of nearly 100 countries and heads of United Nations agencies attended the meeting. The Summit was held with the theme “Leaving No One Behind”. The statements delivered by the member states emphasized trade, investment, sustainable development, climate change, poverty eradication, and the digital economy in fostering South-South Cooperation and collaboration. The member states including Bangladesh called for solidarity, unity, and complementarity in the Global South to achieve the ultimate goals of sustainable development.

This week, the picturesque Swiss town of Davos becomes the epicenter of global policy discussions as world leaders convene to address a plethora of critical issues. High on their agenda are two ongoing major wars, a burgeoning shipping crisis, and the ever-increasing threat of cyber-attacks. Complicating these discussions, however, is the staggering $88.1 trillion global debt burden, a figure reported by CNN. This unprecedented surge, predominantly fueled by public borrowing during the pandemic, now significantly undermines governments’ capabilities to tackle existing and emerging global crises effectively. The soaring debt servicing costs not only strain public services, already reeling from successive budget cuts, but also limit efforts to combat climate change and provide adequate care for aging populations. UN council to hold first meeting on potential threats of artificial intelligence to global peace The risk looms larger as governments might find themselves unable to borrow more to fulfill existing obligations and fund essential services, says the report. Former Bank of England’s monetary policy committee member, Michael Saunders, warned that a government unable to finance its debt could face abrupt and painful spending cuts or tax hikes, hampering its response to future shocks, it also said. As the world faces a risky year of elections with half the global population heading to the polls, there is little incentive for belt-tightening among incumbent administrations. The prospect of new leaders implementing ambitious tax and spending plans raises concerns about the sustainability of already soaring levels of public debt, the report said. In the United States, record levels of public borrowing have become a major point of contention between Republicans and Democrats, affecting national budget negotiations and jeopardizing the functioning of federal agencies, it said. China warns of artificial intelligence risks, calls for beefed-up national security measures The implications of mounting debt are not limited to economic challenges. Political polarization has already impacted the credit rating of the United States, with agencies like Fitch downgrading its rating. Moody’s has also warned about the potential removal of the country’s last remaining perfect rating. Amidst these challenges, the increased cost of servicing debt, driven by rising interest rates, is diverting significant funds away from essential public services. In the UK, the Labour Party has scaled back green spending plans due to concerns about adding to the country's debt burden, the report further stated. As the global economy grapples with these debt challenges and slowing economic growth, some experts, including Raghuram Rajan, former governor of the Reserve Bank of India, suggest that artificial intelligence (AI) could hold the key to a relatively painless recovery. They hope for discussions at Davos to shed light on potential solutions, emphasizing the transformative power of an AI-driven productivity boom to reshape the world’s economic fortunes. UN chief warns of risks of artificial intelligence

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Wednesday urged world leaders to normalise the global economy for the sake of humanity. The minister said this while addressing virtually at the 7th Board of Governors meeting of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). Read:Bangladesh has one of the lowest debt-to-GDP ratios: Finance Minister tells ADB Kamal said all the developing countries were already facing huge challenges amid their efforts to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. But another blow of the Russia-Ukraine war has made their struggle more difficult. The theme of the 2022 AIIB Annual Meeting is “Sustainable infrastructure toward a connected world”, which aims to reaffirm infrastructure's crucial role in supporting recovery, growth and connectivity. The annual meeting provides a diverse range of engaging sessions on topics and issues that impact sustainable economic development and the improvement of infrastructure connectivity in Asia and beyond. Read:Market-based foreign exchange rate may be introduced soon: Finance Minister It is the flagship event of the AIIB. It provides an opportunity to report on the bank's work and receive guidance from shareholders on the AIIB's strategic direction and activities. It also gathers and facilitates discussions among senior official delegates from the AIIB Members, as well as partners, business leaders, civil society organisations, and experts from a range of fields. The meeting was also addressed by - Kun Liu, Governor of China; Ken Ofori-Atta, Governor of Ghana, Nirmala Sitharaman, Governor of India; Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Governor of Pakistan; Indrani Raja, Governor of Singapore; Jamshid Khodzaev, Governor, Uzbekistan; Samad Bashirli, temporary substitute Governor, Azerbaijan; Rudiger von Kleist, temporary substitute Governor, Germany; Nathalie Labuschagne, alternate interim governor of New Zealand and Leonardo Rodriguez Garcia, provisional Alternate Governor of Spain.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Friday urged the world leaders to seize the moment to forge a strong partnership for the common good of global humanity as the world is now moving towards recovery from the pandemic fallouts. “May I entreat that as the world is now moving on the way to recovery from the pandemic, let’s seize the moment to forge a strong partnership for the common good of our global humanity,” she said. Sheikh Hasina said this while speaking at a programme here at the UNESCO headquarters marking the 75th Anniversary of UNESCO with its Director-General Audrey Azoulay in the chair. She said the 75th anniversary is a unique moment to celebrate the achievements while it is also an important occasion to introspect and revisit the organization’s activities for the next 25 years leading to its centenary. “The pandemic menace has taken lives, and changed our lives. It has also taught us to survive through innovative acts and speed,” she said. Read: South-South cooperation: Hasina for setting up ‘Knowledge Centre’ in Bangladesh The Prime Minister put forward a four-point proposal before the global community. Raising the proposals, she said, “First, the pandemic has severely disrupted the education system. For recovery, there’s a need for a global plan to prioritise learning by investing in digital tools and services, access to internet, digital content, and capacity building of teachers,” she said. Secondly, Hasina said, public-private partnership must be forged for creating a technology-assisted meaningful learning environment. In her third point, the PM said, Covid-19 vaccines must be considered as a global public good. We must ensure its access to all, especially students and educators worldwide,” she said. In the 4th proposal, she said the benefit of science and scientific research must be harnessed for the welfare of peoples, with technology transfer at the core. The PM mentioned that Bangladesh’s commitment to the principles of UNESCO is reflected by its early membership in 1972. “We consider this organization as one of the most effective platforms for promoting global peace and collective prosperity,” she said. Guided by the peace-centric foreign policy of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, she said Bangladesh always remains at the forefront of global peace initiatives. “Our participation in UN peacekeeping as the top contributor is one such case,” she added. As a proponent of a culture of peace, Bangladesh has been disseminating the message of peace through instilling tolerance and respect, Hasina said. Read: Hasina urges UNESCO to declare online and remote learning as public good “To do this, we’ve chosen education, science, culture and communications as effective tools. Our investment is particularly enormous in education with targeted interventions like stipends, gender-sensitive approach, school-feeding programmes and ICT education,” she said. Hasina mentioned that some 400 million free textbooks are distributed among around 42 million students in the beginning of school years. The PM said the Digital Bangladesh vision has been preparing, through ICT based learning, the future generations for the 4th Industrial Revolution. “We’ve launched ICT in our Education Master Plan under which about 83,000 schools were provided with ICT devices, and 3,26,936 teachers trained,” she said.

The global leaders have pledged financing, dose donations, support for country readiness and delivery, and scale-up of global manufacturing to enable equitable access to Covid vaccines. To improve access for the lower-income economies, the US will contribute an additional 500 million doses of Pfizer vaccine, to be delivered through COVAX, beginning in 2022. Sweden will provide an additional $243 million through 2021 and 2022. New dose commitments from the European Union, including Italy and Spain, as well as Sweden, Denmark, and Japan mean further doses will be available to COVAX participants in 2021 and 2022. Global leaders made the commitment while attending the Global Covid-19 Summit hosted by the US Thursday. They underlined their commitment to ensuring equitable access to Covid vaccines for all countries through COVAX – noting that equitable access is essential to end the acute stage of the pandemic. Building on the momentum and global solidarity generated over the past eighteen months by various commitments, including at summits organised by the European Commission, the G20 under the Saudi and Italian presidencies, the UK, including the G7 under its presidency, the US, and the prime minister of Japan, the summit saw further pledges made to COVAX and equitable access. READ: Declare Covid vaccines as 'global public good': Hasina Alongside these commitments, several countries pledged additional dose donations to be made available to countries around the world, including through COVAX, with Spain pledging an additional 7.5 million doses, Italy pledging an additional 30 million doses to be made available by the end of the year. And Japan, which hosted the "One World Protected" Gavi COVAX AMC Summit in June 2021, pledging approximately 60 million doses. Also, Denmark announced during the United Nations General Assembly this week that it would be doubling its dose donation commitment, bringing the total to 6 million doses pledged to be shared. José Manuel Barroso, chair of the Gavi board, said this summit marks a major step forward in the global response against Covid and a major step forward for multilateralism. Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organisation, said if they are to meet the targets they have set of vaccinating 10% of the population of all countries by the end of this month, 40% by the end of 2021 and 70% by mid-next-year, they need to drastically scale up access to vaccines now. Unicef Executive Director Henrietta Fore said with only 12% of the pledges made earlier this year turning into actual doses, low-income countries can no longer wait. "We urge dose-sharing countries to accelerate their donation plans." READ: Conduct study to understand vaccine performances, suitability in Bangladesh: Experts    Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, said with the rise of variants and the current gap in equitable access to Covid vaccines they must urgently vaccinate those most at risk everywhere in the world. "We cannot afford further delays in getting vaccines to the most vulnerable – to do so will mean a continuation of this pandemic and its impact on all of our lives." So far COVAX has delivered more than 300 million doses to 142 economies, and according to the latest forecast, approximately 1.2 billion doses will be available for the lower-income economies supported by the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC) by the end of 2021. This is enough to protect 20% of the population, or 40% of all adults, in all 92 AMC economies with the exception of India. The key COVAX milestone of 2 billion doses released for delivery is now expected to be reached in the first quarter of 2022.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday said there is no chance for Bangladesh to look back as it is time to march forward.

Bangladesh is set to wear a festive look ahead of a 10-day special programme marking the 50 years of  independence and the birth centenary of Father of Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman that begins on March 17 at Parade Ground.

Global leaders will attend mega events in person and virtually to join Bangladesh’s golden jubilee celebrations from March 17 to 27, Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen said Tuesday.

Bangladesh has planned to go all out with a big carnival with heads of state and government from March 17-26 marking the birth centenary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and 50 years of Bangladesh’s Independence next year.