Chief adviser Muhammad Yunus will deliver a keynote in Nikkei forum on May 29 exploring “Asia’s challenge in a turbulent world.” Apart from this key conference, Muhammad Yunus will take part in couple of important official meeting which include bilateral talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in Tokyo, Japan, on May 30 to discuss ‘bilateral and strategic’ issues to strengthen relations on all fronts.
Acting Foreign Secretary Md Ruhul Alam Siddique briefed reporters at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday afternoon, noting that the Chief Adviser will pay the official visit from May 28 to 31, reports UNB.
“The main focus of this visit is budgetary support from Japan,” acting foreign secretary said. He said a total of seven MOUs are likely to be signed during Chief adviser’s official visit to Japan.
Bangladesh has sought $1 billion from Japan as budgetary support in the form of ‘soft loan’ and the announcement will come formally after the bilateral talks and an exchange of notes. The acting Foreign Secretary said Muhammad Yunus will leave Dhaka for Japan on May 27 evening.
In February this year, Japanese Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Ikuina Akiko invited the Chief Adviser to visit Japan for the Nikkei 30th Future of Asia event to be held on May 29-30 in Tokyo. Muhammad Yunus is also a recipient of the Nikkei Asia Prize in 2004.
Japan said it would strengthen its engagement with Bangladesh under the Bay of Bengal Initiative (Big-B), as the country aims to support high-quality infrastructure development projects and encourage Japanese manufacturing and production companies to expand their industrial value chains to Bangladesh.
Under the new plan for Free and Open Indo Pacific and Big-B initiatives, Japan wants to see the sustainable development of the region, according to the Bangladesh Embassy in Tokyo.