Staff Reporter :
Anisuzzaman Chowdhury, Special Assistant to the Chief Adviser, has urged international financial institutions (IFIs) to critically re-evaluate their historical support for successive Bangladeshi governments, citing long-standing issues of economic mismanagement and systemic corruption.
Speaking at a seminar titled “Current Challenges in the Banking Sector: Borrowers’ Perspective” hosted by the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI), Chowdhury addressed representatives from institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and the Asian Development Bank (ADB). He criticised these lenders for continuing to disburse funds over the past 15 years without adequately addressing governance concerns.
“These institutions consistently presented Bangladesh as a development success story and endorsed its macroeconomic direction,” he said. “However, this endorsement persisted despite escalating corruption and the misappropriation of public funds.”
Referencing recent audit findings and investigations, Chowdhury claimed that significant sums had been misused through financial irregularities, many of which took place under programmes that received validation and technical backing from global lenders.
He questioned whether international institutions should bear partial responsibility for enabling such conditions, stating: “The continued provision of financial lifelines lent legitimacy to economic frameworks that ultimately undermined stability.”
Chowdhury likened the IMF’s most recent loan arrangement with the former government to placing the national economy in an “intensive care unit,” remarking, “We all know how difficult it is to recover fully from such a condition. That was the state of our economy.”
He credited the student-led movement of July last year with averting a deeper economic crisis, asserting that the uprising helped restore democratic accountability and may have prevented irreversible fiscal damage.
Chowdhury also commended the current administration and the central bank for stabilising key economic indicators, including foreign exchange reserves, inflation, and reforms within the banking sector. He warned that had the previous government remained in power for another year, the country’s financial system might have faced complete collapse.
Looking ahead, he called on international development partners to adopt a more cautious and transparent approach to lending, with stronger anti-corruption safeguards and clearer conditionalities to ensure future support contributes to sustainable and accountable growth.
