Bangladesh President Mohammed Shahabuddin dissolved parliament and freed jailed opposition leader Khaleda Zia on Tuesday, a day after Sheikh Hasina resigned as prime minister and fled the country.
The decision to dissolve the national assembly was made after talks involving military chiefs, politicians, civil representatives and student leaders who had led weeks of public demonstrations.
Ms Zia, 78, chairwoman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, was the country's first prime minister, serving from 2001 to 2006.
She was Bangladesh's first female prime minister and had served six years of a 17-year jail term after being convicted of corruption in 2018.
She was suffering from poor health and had spent time in hospital.
The President’s office declared that all who were arrested over the student protest movement would be released.
“Khaleda Zia has been freed and many of those held for demonstrating starting [on] July 1 have been freed,” a statement read.
Army chief Gen Waker-Uz-Zaman was scheduled to meet student protest leaders late on Tuesday as Bangladesh awaited the formation of an interim government.
Those who led the demonstrations that led to Ms Hasina's departure have proposed that Nobel laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus be appointed chief adviser of the government.
Ms Hasina, 76, arrived in India on a military aircraft on Monday, after thousands of protesters stormed and looted her residence in Dhaka.
India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said she had made the request “at very short notice”.
After receiving a request for flight clearance from the Bangladesh authorities, she arrived in New Delhi on Monday evening, Mr Jaishankar told the Indian Parliament on Tuesday.
Order had returned to the streets of Bangladesh on Tuesday after the army lifted a weeks-long curfew imposed to contain the protests against reserved quotas in government jobs.
Television showed people shopping, while businesses, courts and government offices reopened and public transport services resumed.
Ms Hasina's departure came a day after nearly 100 people were killed in protests on Sunday, taking the death toll during the demonstrations to more than 300.
The demonstrators, mostly students, had been protesting against the introduction of a reservation quota in government jobs that they claimed benefited supporters of Ms Hasina and her ruling Awami League party.
Ms Hasina's son, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, said his mother was disappointed with the events.
“She did not want to leave but we were concerned with her physical safety first and persuaded to leave,” Mr Wazed Joy told India news channel NDTV.
“I spoke to her. [The] situation in Bangladesh is anarchy and she is very disappointed and disheartened. It was her dream to turn Bangladesh into a developed country,” he said.
“We have shown what we can do, how much we can develop, but if the people of Bangladesh are not ready to step up, then people get the leadership they deserve.”
Thousands of protesters stormed the prime ministerial residence in Dhaka on Monday as news emerged that Ms Hasina had left the country.
Gen Uz-Zaman announced the resignation in a televised address and promised to set up an interim government as soon as possible.
While Ms Hasina has been credited with turning the country’s economy around and working to reduce poverty, Bangladesh's economy has been struggling since the coronavirus pandemic.
Her government banned public rallies, issued “shoot-on-sight” orders and imposed a near-total internet and mobile blackout after the protests began early last month.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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