G-20 to help become part of global decision making process: finance minister

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal today said participating in G-20 is a unique opportunity for Bangladesh to be part of global decision making process.

“The slogan of this year’s G-20 Summit is ‘One World, One Family, One Future’. The ongoing global economic crisis has created challenges worldwide. We need to be more aware of this. To solve this crisis, we all must be sincere, where the G20 alliance has a very important role,” he said.

Kamal said this while speaking at a two-day G-20 summit that started today at Gandhinagar in Gujarat, India, said a press release here.

A delegation, headed by AHM Mustafa Kamal, is attending the two-day event. Although Bangladesh is not a member of the G-20, host nation India has included nine countries of different regions, including Bangladesh, as ‘Guest Country’.

These countries are taking part in various meetings and events of the G-20 Summit. Bangladesh is participating in this G-20 event as a ‘Guest Country’.

Kamal said that Bangladesh will also take part as a ‘guest country’ in the G-20 summit which will be held in New Delhi on September 9-10 this year.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been invited to attend the Heads of State and Government Summit at the event, he added.

Kamal said the G-20 is an international economic alliance consisting of 20 industrialized countries of the world.

This alliance was formed to bring together important industrialized and developing countries of the world to discuss key issues of the global economy, he added.

At the conference, Kamal mentioned that after the independence in 1972, Bangladesh’s GDP was only US$6.3 billion.

“Our GDP is now $460 billion. Bangladesh has now become a role model for development in the whole world under the leadership of our Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina,” he added.

He said Bangladesh is now the 35th largest economy in the world, and will become the 24th largest economy by 2036.

“Our next goal is to become an upper-middle income country by 2031 and a smart developed country by 2041. It is expected that Bangladesh will soon be included as a member of the G-20 alliance, he added. (BSS)