Bangladesh is going to host the 9th Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) in 2016.
The decision came at the steering group meeting of the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) in Geneva yesterday.
The group in the meeting also unanimously accepted Bangladesh’s bid to chair the GFMD in 2016, says a Foreign Ministry press release.
An initiative of the United Nations member states to address the migration and development inter-linkages, GFMD is the biggest forum to discuss migration issues.
During the meeting, Canada strongly supported Bangladesh’s bid, setting the tone of the group in favourable terms. The US, the Netherlands, Australia, India, Tunisia, Mexico, Mauritius and the Philippines also supported the bid. The Bangladesh delegation at the meeting was led by Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque.
The foreign secretary said: “Bangladesh would try its best to uphold the trust bestowed upon the country by taking the forum to a new height during its chairmanship.” He assured that Bangladesh would place the issue of migration and development at its due place in the post-2015 Development Agenda.
Mentionable, Bangladesh has been actively participating in the process since the beginning of the forum in 2007.
