Kamal world’s best finance minister

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal was named the best finance minister in the world by The Banker, a London-based business magazine, beating candidates from Asia Pacific, America, Africa, the Middle East and Europe.

The magazine crowned Kamal with the Finance Minister of the Year for Asia Pacific and Global Award-2020. He is the first finance minister in Bangladesh to have won the accolade.

The Finance Minister of the Year awards of The Banker, owned by the Financial Times Group, celebrate the officials that have best managed to stimulate growth and stabilise economies.

Kamal dedicated the award to the people of Bangladesh. He thanked Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and said that this was only achieved by following the direction of the premier.

He was appointed as finance minister in January last year after his party retained power for the third consecutive term in December 2018. He served as the planning minister from 2014 to 2018.

Immediately after taking the baton from AMA Muhith, he took several effective initiatives to keep pace with the ongoing economic growth and restore discipline in the financial sector, Kamal said in a statement.

Bangladesh clocked 8.15 percent GDP growth last fiscal year, which was the highest in the Asia Pacific region.

Kamal introduced the new VAT law and Bangla Bond on the London Stock Exchange.

He took steps to cap banks’ lending rates at 9 percent, to reschedule logical defaulted loans at state banks and announce wilful defaulters as bankrupt and realise unpaid dues through forming an asset management company.

He also brought in reforms at the stock market last year.      

The magazine has been giving the award since 2004. India’s late finance minister Arun Jaitley received the award in 2017.