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Bangladesh and Britain are expected to seal three deals involving Tk 17.70 billion when a top British policymaker arrives in city next month on a two-day official tour.
Top officials of the two countries might sign the agreements in the presence of the British Minister for International Development Hilary Benn, who will be visiting Bangladesh between December 11 and 12, official sources said Monday.
"This is going to the most high-profile visit from Britain since the re-election of British premier Tony Blair," a high official of the Foreign Ministry said, referring to a letter from the British High Commission.
"The official trip of the British minister will help further cement the bilateral relations between Dhaka and London. We attach much importance to the visit as Britain is one of the major development partners of Bangladesh," the official added.
The accords on the projects are the Rural Electrification Development Programme, the Health, Nutrition and Population Sector Programme (HNPSP) and the UK-Bangladesh Remittance and Payments Partnership project, sources said.
The UK minister, who took the charge of the ministry in 2003 when his predecessor, Clare Shot, stepped down protesting his country's involvement in Iraq war, would make a courtesy call on Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia on the first day of his trip.
On the day, he will be holding hectic parleys with top government officials here.
He will have a bilateral discussion with Finance and Planning Minister M Saifur Rahman on a wide spectrum of issues ranging from poverty reduction strategy to governance, to aid utilisation to corruption.
Officials of the Economic Relations Division (ERD), however, refused to give the agenda of the talks between the two ministers.
"We are yet to finalise the agenda of the talks. We'll do it shortly according to a directive of the finance minister," an ERD official said. He did not give further details.
Benn first visited Bangladesh in 2001 when he was the state minister for the Ministry of International Development, it is learnt.
The British policymaker, who will be en route to Hong Kong December 12 to attend the sixth ministerial meeting of the WTO, will hold a separate meeting with Commerce Minister Altaf Hossain Choudhury on the day of his arrival.
Official sources said the meeting between Benn and Altaf would centre round the issues relating to the troubled global trade talks, given the looming key ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
The two ministers are likely to review the progress of the trade talks, which have been faltering since its launch in 2001 in Doha.
The British minister may seek Bangladesh's support in moving forward the struggling Doha round, given its little headway towards striking a global free trade pact by the end of 2006, commerce ministry officials said.
Besides his official talks, Benn would inspect the activities of a number of UK-funded projects, including the SOS, the Urban Primary Health Care Project and the Small Enterprise Cluster Project.
The British minister will be accompanied by his Private Secretary Howard Talyor and the Special Adviser of the Department for International Development (DFID), Beatrice Stern.
British High Commissioner Anwar Choudhury, the Chief of the Department for International Development (DFID), Bangladesh, David Wood, and other officials will assist the UK minister during the talks.
The UK government gave Bangladesh aid worth 125 million pounds last year, with the major chunk going to the social sector.
Britain also doubled its aid for Bangladesh at the same period, thus leapfrogging Japan as the country's largest bilateral donor.
Benn will fly to Hong Kong December 13 to attend the key ministerial conference, slated for December 13-19.
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