'France keen to help Bangladesh meet green investment needs'

France is keen to provide Bangladesh with concessional loans of the Agence Française de Dévelopment (AFD) to support the latter in meeting green investment needs and addressing climate related issues, AFD Executive Director Philippe Orliange said today.

Bangladesh is looking for massive capital investments amid unprecedented environmental and climate change issues at a time when the nation is experiencing rapid economic development just before turning up as a least developed country, he said.

He made the comments in an exclusive interview with news agency UNB.

The French embassy in Dhaka and AFD's Dhaka office organised the Bangladesh visit of the executive director considering the population size of the country that is significant for a development partner.

During his two-day visit, the highest-level AFD mission to date, Orliange acknowledged the growing collaboration between AFD and Bangladesh over the past decade.

The AFD, a financial institution of the French government, is currently operating in 110 countries with an annual commitment of around 12 billion euros – half of it in Africa and the rest in Asia, South America and the Middle East.

Orliange had a meeting with the finance and secretaries of the Economic Relations Division (ERD) and the Bangladesh Bank governor on the same day.

The portfolio of Bangladesh is around 1.4 billion euros, said Orliange, who also attended a roundtable, titled "The role of France in tackling climate change, both globally as well as in Bangladesh".

The roundtable was facilitated by International Centre for Climate Change and Development.