Newly appointed special assistant for the finance ministry Anisuzzaman Chowdhury on Tuesday said that the country鈥檚 trade-related data had not been shared with the United Nations since 2015.
Trade data are matched with other trading countries to examine trade-based money laundering, he said while talking to reporters at the conference room of the finance ministry in the capital Dhaka one day after he was given the executive power of the finance ministry with the status of a state minister.
The suspension made me suspicious, said the economist, also a former director of the macroeconomic policy and development division and statistics division of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.
Earlier, he narrated his stint with the UN between 2008 and 2016.
Responding to a question, Anisuzzaman said that the repatriation of assets stolen during the Awami League regime, which was ousted amid a mass uprising in August 2024, was possible.
He said that many countries had already assured the chief adviser of assisting in sending back the stolen money from their countries.
He also informed that a committee headed by the principal secretary to the chief adviser was working to assess the country鈥檚 overall preparations for its graduation from the least developed countries鈥� bloc in November 2026.
Expressing his interest in working in the issue, he said that the committee would determine how much the country鈥檚 position was inflated due to flawed data inserted by the previous political regime.
He said that the country had scope for appeal for deferring the graduation for at least two years.
But such decision has not been taken yet, he said while observing that the country鈥檚 economic situation was not good.
He said that there should not be any 鈥榟ide-and-seek鈥� regarding the actual condition of the economy.