Summit Group Chairman Muhammed Aziz Khan has pledged to donate $1 million to the endowment fund of icddr,b Hospital.

Of the donation, $0.5 million will come from Summit Corporation and from personal funds and the rest from the Anjuman & Aziz Charitable Trust.

It will be the largest private donation pledge ever to icddr,b from a Bangladeshi.

Khan made the pledge during a recent visit to the hospital, Summit Corporation said in a statement.

The Summit Group chairman was accompanied by his wife Anjuman Aziz Khan and daughter Azeeza Aziz Khan ACCA, who are also directors of the group.

"It is a privilege and honour for me and my family to be able to support the humanitarian works that icddr,b does. We are humbled to support its research which saved hundreds of millions of children," Khan said.

"Dr Tahmeed Ahmed, Dr Firdausi Qadri and all, make Bangladesh proud. We support and celebrate Bangladesh's independence by supporting one of the finest institutions of the world."

Ahmed appreciated and expressed his gratitude to Mr and Mrs Khan as well as Summit Corporation for their pledge.

He said, "Mr Muhammed Aziz Khan and Mrs Anjuman Aziz Khan surprised us by pledging $1 million, which will considerably boost our strive to achieve our target."

"We are enormously grateful to Mr and Mrs Khan, and the Summit Corporation for their kind generosity. We have set a target for ourselves to make our hospitals sustainable and grow the hospital endowment fund so that earnings from it are sufficient enough to continue our hospitals' operations. I hope more Bangladeshi business leaders would be so thoughtful."

icddr,b is an international public health research institution that provides free-of-charge care to over 200,000 people annually in two hospitals located in Dhaka and Matlab in Chandpur.

icddr,b relies entirely on donations to provide this essential service.