Bangladesh seeks foreign friends support to recover hundreds of billions in stolen money

ISLAMABAD: Bangladesh on Wednesday sought support from foreign friends to bring back hundreds of billions of stolen money, as BD Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus spent a busy day at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland.

According to reports from Swiss tourist resort, the chief adviser met Wolfgang Schmidt, Head of the Federal Chancellery and Federal Minister for Special Tasks, Federal Chancellery of Germany; King Philippe, King of Belgium; Paetongtarn Shinawatra, Prime Minister of Thailand; Ignazio Cassis, Federal Councilor, Federal Department for Foreign Affairs, Switzerland; Sheikha Latifa Bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairperson, Dubai Culture and Arts Authority, United Arab Emirates; UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres; Congo President Felix Tshisekedi, former US Special Envoy on Climate Change, John Kerry, and former British prime minister Tony Blair, among others, on his second day at the WEF.

Finance Minister Pakistan Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb, who is representing Pakistan in WEF, had also an informal meeting with Dr. Muhammad Yunus. Chief Adviser Prof Yunus urged global leaders to send top experts, think tanks, journalists, and international organisations to Bangladesh to dig into how the “plain and daylight robbery” was committed in Bangladesh during Sheikh Hasina’s corrupt 16-year-long rule.

Lutfey Siddiqi, Special Envoy to the Chief Adviser briefed German minister Wolfgang Schmidt regarding the government’s efforts in recovering the stolen money and said the government had formed an Asset Recovery Committee (ARC) and a task force headed by the Bangladesh Bank governor in this regard. He said the government had targeted top 20 money launderers initially to recover their stolen money.

Highlighting the interim government’s efforts to build a corruption-free Bangladesh, Chief Adviser Prof Yunus told the German minister: “When we talk about new Bangladesh, we also talk about clean Bangladesh.” The chief adviser sought German support to this effect and also discussed potential fields of economic cooperation with the German minister.