New York, Broadcasting News Corporation: Bangladesh has called for robust international cooperation to prevent illegal financial flows and ensure the return of smuggled assets to the country. Such assets are extremely important for national development and the welfare of the people.

Speaking at a special meeting on financial integrity of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on Wednesday (February 4, 2026), Bangladesh’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Salahuddin Noman Chowdhury, said that the mass uprisings of July 2024 have sparked new expectations among people for integrity, transparency, and accountability in everyday life. He noted that so-called ‘mega projects’ bring very limited benefits to ordinary people; rather, they create opportunities for corruption and pave the way for public funds to be transferred abroad to safe havens.

He called for ensuring proper exchange of relevant information based on transparency, strengthening effective partnerships, and taking coordinated international action with the aim of recovering these assets and returning them to their legitimate owners.

Describing the results of the fourth International Conference on Financing for Development held in Spain last June as historic, Ambassador Chowdhury said that political progress must be effectively implemented so that the recovered funds can be used to strengthen educational institutions, hospitals, social protection systems, and the country’s domestic economic capacity.