The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has upgraded the overall country ratings of Bangladesh by one notch up to five from six after 13 years, Bangladesh Bank said in a statement yesterday.
The major reason for the promotion is the resilience of Bangladesh economy accompanied by high and stable growth for well over a decade despite political upheaval and weak external demand.
The announcement came at a meeting of Swiss Export Credit Agency (SERV) held in Zurich last week. Bangladesh Bank (BB) Governor Dr. Atiur Rahman attended the meeting.
After upgrading the position, Bangladesh has surpassed its neighbouring countries like Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Myanmar and Mongolia in the OECD country classification, and is only behind India, according to the OECD latest statistics.
With this, Bangladesh has now become a new frontier market, graduating from a highly development aid-dependent nation due to long spell of macroeconomic stability.
“Bangladesh is an untold story,” the BB governor told the delegation of SERV at the meeting.
Expressing satisfaction over the enhancement in OECD classification, the central bank chief said it will help lead to significant lowering of costs for Bangladeshi entrepreneurs and banks in securing guarantees and L/C confirmations.
“A large pool of young population offers demographic dividend, which if properly trained, can easily be transformed into skilled labour force, eventually brining in huge foreign reserves for Bangladesh. European countries can take advantage of this up-gradation,” the BB governor explained.
He expressed the hope that the upgraded classification of Bangladesh will attract substantially wider engagement of the advanced economy ECAs in lending to investment projects in Bangladesh including in infrastructure, textiles and apparel, pharmaceuticals and leather sectors.
The governor assured that Bangladesh will maintain conducive policy environment towards higher economic growth and macro-financial stability.
He welcomed investors to reap the full advantage of all existing and new facilities, bringing about a major new upturn in trade and investment relationships.
The OECD a body comprising 34 countries including USA, Western Europe, Scandinavia, Switzerland and Japan, improved the country risk classification of Bangladesh among recipients of officially supported export credit.
It is a forum of countries describing themselves as committed to democracy and the market economy, providing a platform to compare policy experiences, seeking answers to common problems, identify good practices and coordinate domestic and international policies of its members.