Christian Brix Møller, the Danish Ambassador to Bangladesh, and Dr Fahmida Khatun, executive director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), formalised a four-year partnership on the economic reform and green transition agenda, specifically through research, dialogue and policy advocacy on Tuesday.
Møller said: "Now the time has come to work on institutional strengthening, good governance and make the systems transparent and accountable for Bangladesh. CPD is uniquely positioned to facilitate the transformation process of the country as a proven thought leader on socio-economic transformation.
"We believe this engagement will offer realistic recommendations for the policymakers to restore economic stability, bringing trust to the foreign investors and potential ways to overcome the challenges of the middle-income trap," he added.
He continued: " We want Bangladesh’s strong presence in the global value chain with higher productivity, diversification of the income, entering into FTAs and ease of doing business. And CPD as a key player for policy advocacy can step up as key agents of transformation of the country."
Dr Fahmida Khatun said: "We thank Denmark for its support for our institutionalisation. Back in 2019, Denmark contributed to the institutional arrangement of CPD. Furthermore, the Danish government has been consistently promoting the rule of law and good governance and CPD has the same ambition."
She added: "This partnership is a timely one as we are passing a transitional period for the country and expecting to bring structural and institutional changes for the country. We are hopeful to create evidence and research appropriate for the existing reform agenda of the interim government."
The new partnership will ensure stakeholder engagement, capacity development of students and duty bearers along with policy dialogue for the next four years to have long-lasting changes in the country.