The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Economists, educationists and representatives from the civil society in the city said any discussion or agreement between the government and international financial institutions must be transparent and accountable to public. Information of the agreement must be available to public through print and electronic media.

Prior to receiving any aid loan, public opinion should be taken into account. Besides, modalities as to how aid money will benefit communities at large should be clearly defined. Prioritised development sectors including the effectiveness of aid should be articulated well and ensured in this regard, the also said.

Aid with conditions by World Bank or IMF should not be accepted anyway. Policies should be formulated on the basis of the advice from the national experts like economists, academia, media and others capitalising on the needs, demands and priorities of primary stakeholders of the concerned communities, they added.

Mindset of 'dependency' should be changed towards a self-reliant country and alternatives should be explored and made operational in this regard. These alternatives include domestic resource mobilisation, internal loan management, combating corruption and prevention of misuse of own resources, speakers said at a civil society dialogue held at National Press Club yesterday.

They said this at the dialogue on 'How Bank and Fund Stand against People - Breaking the cycle of Neo-liberal Hegemony' organised by Voice, working on research campaign and empowerment, on the eve of WB-IMF annual general meeting 2007.

Prof Anu Muhammad, economist, Dr Jafrullah Chowdhury, Chairman of Gonoshasthya Kendra, Dr Piash Karim of Department of Economics and Social Sciences of BRAC University, Dr Melissa Hussain of Department of English of North South University, Zakir Hossain, Coordinator of Nagorik Uddog, among others, spoke at the dialogue, while Ahmed Swapan Mahmud, Executive Director of Voice, presented key-note paper.

Speakers underscored the need for an alternative financial mechanism, South Asian Bank comprising the South Asian governments should be built up based on equal share and under stable partnership. The bank as such could be named as Equity and Development Bank (EDB).

They urged the government to develop independent national economic policy and finally say no to international financial institutions like World Bank, IMF.

A legal framework with the expatriate Bangladeshis should be formulated so that they can provide money to the government as loan, which could be invested for development purposes, they said.

Compensation against the damage caused by projects initiated by international financial institutions should be made to the affected community, they added.