Staff Correspondent 

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has chosen an experienced diplomat and former Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali as the new finance minister amid challenges on economic front.

The portfolio was distributed after the oath-taking ceremony at Bangabhaban on Thursday evening, reports UNB.

He replaced AHM Mostafa Kamal as the finance minister.

Following the formation of the all-party election-time Government on 21 November 2013, Ali was appointed as the Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Ali was re-appointed as the Minister for Foreign Affairs on 26 February 2014 following his election as a Member of Parliament from the same constituency in the 10th parliamentary election held on 5 and 16 January, 2014.

Mahmood Ali, M.P. was born in 1943 in Dinajpur, Bangladesh. He was educated at the University of Dhaka and received B.A. Honours (1962) and M.A. (1963) Degree in Economics. He taught Economics at the same University (1964-66) before joining the erstwhile Pakistan Foreign Service (PFS) in 1966.

In his long distinguished diplomatic career, he served in various capacities at the Headquarters (Dhaka) and at Bangladesh Missions abroad which include New York (Vice-Consul, Acting Consul General), New Delhi (First Secretary, Counsellor and Deputy High Commissioner) and Beijing (Deputy Chief of Mission with the rank of an Ambassador).

Ali is a valiant freedom fighter and made enormous contribution in the diplomatic front of the war of liberation of Bangladesh in 1971.

He worked for Bangladesh's independence in the U.S. and at the United Nations. Immediately after arriving in New York in 1968, he mobilised the Bangalee community in the United States.