Prime Minister’s Finance and Planning Adviser Dr Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir on Thursday said Bangladesh’s existing fragile economy must be transformed into a trillion-dollar one, converging the nation’s development trajectory and its five-year strategic plan with global frameworks.
He stressed the need for synchronization with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the Paris Agreement.
Titumir called for private-capital mobilization and the need for global climate funds to match national ambition with speed and concessionality, as well as reflected on the philosophy of the premier as set out in BNP’s election manifesto.
The adviser made the suggestions while addressing the closing session of an Economic Relations Division (ERD)-sponsored event in the capital.
The ERD hosted the High-Level Policy Dialogue at a hotel in the capital on the theme “Building Bangladesh a Trillion-Dollar Climate-Resilient Economy: Accelerating Climate Finance Mobilization through Designing Strategic & Investment-Ready Climate Projects”.
Organized under the Bangladesh Climate Development Partnership (BCDP), the event marked the 33rd initiative of ERD’s International Climate Finance Cell (ICFC).
Asian Development Bank (ADB) extended technical support for the dialogue that brought together policy leaders, international financial institutions, private-sector executives, civil society organizations and academia, said an ERD press release.
The dialogue formed Round 2 of ICFC’s flagship capacity-building program, “From Vision to Approval: Unlocking GCF Finance through High-Impact Concept Notes.”
Building on Round 1 — a series of online introductory sessions — it prepares participants for Round 3, a residential Climate Leadership Incubation Lab in which they will author investment-ready Green Climate Fund (GCF) concept notes under expert mentorship.
ERD’s UN wing chief AKM Sohel delivered the opening note, outlining the objectives of the initiative, while the inaugural session was joined by ERD secretary Md Shahriar Kader Siddiky.
Siddiky noted that Bangladesh was losing a great deal due to climate change and must focus sharply on climate financing.
He called for a strong structure to crowd in private investment — candidly acknowledging that the country remains behind in its readiness to submit proposals to international climate funds.
Emphasizing partnership, innovation and shared prosperity, he affirmed that securing climate finance is a collective responsibility grounded in strong project ownership.
The session also featured remarks from ADB Country Director Qingfeng Zhang, who reaffirmed ADB’s continued commitment to partnering with Bangladesh on climate-resilient development and emphasized the importance of designing bankable, investment-ready projects to mobilise climate finance at scale.
The policy dialogue proceeded through two comprehensive thematic panel sessions, each anchored by a keynote presentation from AKM Sohel, Wing Chief of the UN Wing at ERD, who framed climate literacy as the vital bridge between scientific reality and financial feasibility, and outlined the strategic pathway to transform climate science into fundable theories of change.
