Terming the finance adviser's speech delivered at the UK-Bangladesh Climate Conference 'anti-people and contradictory to the interests of the poor', speakers at a press conference yesterday demanded withdrawal of his speech and called for raising the issue in the next elected parliament.
They said people's opinion was not reflected in his speech and it will pave the way for multinational companies to make the country their colony and a potential market as it was proposed that the World Bank (WB) oversee the Multi-Donor Trust Fund (MDTF).
Equity and Justice Working Group (Equity BD) organised the press conference at the Dhaka Reporters' Unity auditorium.
The speakers said Finance Adviser AB Mirza Azizul Islam in his speech at the conference on MDTF on September 10 invited the WB instead of the United Nations (UN) to conduct the fund, and did not demand that the fund be given as compensation for climate change impacts.
They said G-8 countries and international organisations such as WB, IMF and ADB are trying to entangle Bangladesh in financial trap to make it a fully import-oriented country by forcing it to stop industrial growth in the name of carbon emission.
According to Bali declaration of UNFCCC, developing countries are not bound to adopt low carbon technology for the sake of creating job opportunity to cope with the existing unemployment problems, they said.
Equity and Justice Working Group Convener Reazul Karim Chowdhury read out a written speech at the press conference. Its members Shahadat Islam Chowdhury, AHM Bazlur Rahman and Mostofa Kamal Akhand also spoke.