Economic Relations Division (ERD) is one of the four divisions of the Ministry of Finance, Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh. The other three divisions of the Ministry of Finance are:
Mr. Abul Maal Abdul Muhith is the Honb'le Minister and Mr. M. A. Mannan is the Honb'le State Minister of the Ministry of Finance. Kazi Shofiqul Azam is the Secretary of ERD.
ERD is one of the important Divisions of the Government of Bangladesh which mobilizes external resources for socio-economic development of the country. ERD leads as the focal point of the Government for interfacing with the development partners as well as for co-ordination of all external assistance inflows into the country. It assesses the needs of external assistance, devises strategy for negotiations and mobilizing foreign assistance, formalize and enables aid mobilization through signing of loans and grant agreements, determines and executes external economic policy.
The main focus of ERD is to coordinate, plan, mobilize and determine allocation of external assistance in relation to the country's development programme priorities. ERD also maintains external economic relations with governments and international and regional bodies. As the Government's aid coordinating authority, ERD undertakes aid programming and budgeting, initiating, negotiating and signing agreements, and informing the development partners of the use of development assistance. Foreign debt management including repayment of principal and interest amounts due to different lenders constitutes an important part of ERD's work. In brief, the Economic Relations Division deals with all the areas of the external economic affairs of the country.
Structure of ERD: ERD has Ten Wings. These are:
The Ministry of Finance is active in developing financial inclusion policy and is a member of the Alliance for Financial Inclusion.
Source: ERD Website