Dhaka: Finance Minister AMA Muhith held a meeting with World Bank (WB) Group President Jim Yong Kim, who is now in Dhaka on a three-day visit as part of a global End Poverty Day campaign, at the minister’s secretariat office on Monday morning.

The meeting began at about 8:45am.

He will also join a programme ‘End Global Poverty by 2030: Sharing Bangladesh’s Experience’ to be held at Osmani Memorial Auditorium at 4.15pm tomorrow. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is expected to attend the programme.

The WB president will also hold meeting with other senior government officials during his stay in Dhaka for broad ranging discussions on the country’s development progress and explore opportunities to deepen the World Bank’s engagement.

Kim is scheduled to visit Bangabandhu Museum in Dhanmondi and head-office of bkash at Mahakhail on Monday. He will also visit WB funded projects in Barisal on the third day of his visit on Tuesday. He will also attend a press conference before leaving Bangladesh on the same day.

According to the WB Dhaka office, one of the major objectives of his visit would be exploring a bigger avenue for promoting private sector investment by strengthening governance and improving the investment climate.

During the visit of the WB top brass, Bangladesh and its people will receive global recognition on 17 October for dramatically reducing poverty when the World Bank Group marks the End Poverty Day aiming to alleviating extreme poverty by 2030, WB said in a web-posting.

‘His visit is intended to draw attention to Bangladesh’s impressive record in dramatically reducing extreme poverty,’ said a WB media release earlier.

‘I’m very much looking forward to seeing firsthand Bangladesh’s progress in improving the livelihoods of tens of millions, empowering women, and enhancing the quality of education,’ the release said quoting Kim as saying.

‘Many developing countries in the world can learn important lessons from Bangladesh to reduce extreme poverty and to promote sustainable development,’ he added.