Dhaka Seeks Philippines Support Recovering BB’s Stolen Money

Dhaka today sought help from Government of Philippines for the recovery of Bangladesh Bank (BB) money, lost in the cyber heist in February 2016.

The urge was made when outgoing Philippines Ambassador Vicente Vivencio T. Bandillo made his farewell to Foreign Minister Dr. AK Abdul Momen in the capital, a press release from the foreign ministry said, reports BSS.

During the meeting, Dr. Momen thanked the Government of the Philippines for its full support to the Government of Bangladesh to get back $15 million of the $81 million stolen by hackers.

The Foreign Minister expressed his hope that the Filipino government would continue to support it until the rest of the money had been recovered.

Assuring Dhaka of his government’s full support to Bangladesh Bank on the money recovery issue, the envoy said that Philippines has initiated some measures to combat money laundering.

Dr. Momen also sought Philippines’ support on voluntary and sustainable repatriation of the Rohingyas levering its influence on Myanmar government.

The foreign minister requested Philippines to exert political pressure on Myanmar together with all ASEAN members to take back the Rohingyas.

He said Bangladesh has long been proposing formation of an ASEAN-led non-military civilian observer group but Myanmar has not been coming forward positively to implement this proposal.

Dr. Momen cautioned that if the Rohingya issue is not resolved immediately, radical elements can take advantage of the displacement and regional as well as international security would certainly be jeopardized.

Terming the Philippines as a global leader in the services sector particularly nursing, marine engineering and seafaring, foreign minister said that Bangladesh is keen to sign the pending MoU on nursing education with the Philippines as early as possible and initiate exchange programmes of students and staff nurses between the two countries.

The Ambassador assured the minister to do the needful for completing the MoU soon.

Pointing out that there is a huge scope of Filipino investment in the agro-processing sector, Dr. Momen suggested that Filipino franchise Jollibee and Potato Corner can open outlets in Bangladesh.