DHAKA, June 11, 2020 (BSS) – An allocation of Taka 1,633 crore has been made in the budget proposed for 2020-21 fiscal for the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
The allocation in the proposed budget is only Taka 36 crore more than the revised budget of 2019-20 fiscal that was Taka 1,597 crore. The proposed budget of the fiscal 2019-20 for foreign affairs ministry was Taka 1,621 crore.
Of the total Taka 1,633 crore, Taka 119 crore will be spent under the Annual Development Programme (ADP) and Taka 1,514 crore under non-development sector.
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal made the announcement while placing the budget for the new financial year amid the unprecedented consequences of COVID-19 pandemic before the Jatiya Sangsad today.
At his speech, the finance minister said Bangladesh would continue relentlessly to enhance various collaborative efforts at home and abroad in developing efficient and trained manpower to tackle pandemic like COVID-19 and to reap the benefits of ‘science diplomacy’ and ‘technology diplomacy’.
“The aforesaid diplomacies will act as a powerful tool, which will enable us to work in cooperation with the developed world in conducting research on health-science, importing or adopting new technologies and spreading our own technologies across the world in the coming days,” he said.
He said Bangladesh has become a role model of humanitarian support provider in the world by providing safe shelter, food and healthcare service to 11 lakh Rohingya refugees who were forcefully dislodged from their homes in Myanmar.
“We will continue with this gesture of humanitarian response in the coming fiscal year too,” said the finance minister.
In various ongoing negotiations at the WTO, Kamal said, Dhaka has been continuing its efforts to ensure that Bangladesh continue to enjoy the LDC-specific benefits for a certain period even after the country’s graduation from the Least Developed Country (LDC) status.
Further, the government, as part of its efforts to effectively face the challenges of LDC graduation, has taken initiatives to conclude Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs) to develop trade relations with different countries and enhance exports.
Feasibility studies to examine the FTA potentials with 11 countries have so far been complete while significant progress has been made in concluding PTAs with Nepal, Indonesia and Bhutan, and it is expected that these agreements will soon be concluded.
To utilise the potential of blue economy, he said, the government is actively considering enhancing communication and sign memorandum of understanding (MOU) with countries that have seen successes in similar endeavours.
“We strongly believe that steps taken by us will open avenues for unleashing all the potentials of our blue economy,” he observed.