Bangladesh Navy and Air Force have sought permission from the government to start a commercial bank.
Navy chief Vice Admiral Muhammad Farid Habib in a letter to the Prime Minister has asked for approval for the proposed Maritime Bank Ltd.
The Air Force and Navy will be partners in the venture.
The Navy wants to operate the bank through its commercial arm Nou Kalyan Foundation.
A formal proposal will be submitted to the Bangladesh Bank after getting the prime minister’s permission.
Acknowledging the proposal, Secretary to the Banking and Financial Institutes Division M Aslam Alam said, “I am aware about the proposal, but I don’t know whether any decision has been reached on it.”
The letter to the Prime Minister says that the Navy is increasingly dealing with more and more public and private funds and the number of vessels serving for the UN peacekeeping mission has also increased.
Adding a separate bank would make things easy and save public funds, the navy chief wrote.
The bank aims to invest in large projects in the maritime and aviation sector, especially export-import, shipbuilding and aviation, ports and in the blue economy.
“The bank would be able to play an important role in the country’s economic development process,” Vice Admiral Habib wrote, adding that this was observed after a feasibility study by a well-known consulting agency.
He sought the prime minister’s intervention to instruct the finance ministry and the central bank to clear their proposal.
– Ittefaq Report