Dhaka Bureau: Information Minister and Joint General Secretary of Awami League. Hashan Mahmud said, at the end of the BNP period, the foreign exchange reserve was less than 3.5 billion dollars in 2006, which has increased 12 times during the Sheikh Hasina period and now stands at about 37 billion dollars. Bangladesh is now the 31st economy in the world on Purchasing Power Parity or PPP basis.
He said that almost all the countries of the world are breaking the reserve savings due to Corona and the war situation. A country has enough foreign exchange reserves to cover 3 months of import expenses, we have 5 months of reserves. So there is no scope to talk about reserve.
The minister said this in the contemporary context during the chief guest’s speech at the DRU Sahitya Award-2022 and member writer awarding ceremony at Dhaka Reporters Unity Auditorium at Segunbagicha in the capital on Wednesday (October 26) noon. DRU President Nazrul Islam Mithu presided over and General Secretary Nurul Islam Haseeb delivered the welcome address on the occasion.
The Information Minister said, ‘BNP leaders talk about reserves, but when BNP left power in 2006, the reserves were less than three and a half billion dollars, 3.46 billion dollars. And when the caretaker government left power, the reserve was $6.1 billion. From there Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina took it to 44 billion dollars and then imports were stopped due to Corona. Now that Corona has subsided a little, investment has started, imports have increased, due to which the reserve has decreased slightly to 36.8 billion dollars. However, where the country has enough foreign exchange reserves to cover 3 months of import expenses, we have 5 months of reserves.
Almost every country in the world is now breaking savings, i.e. spending from reserves, Hasan Mahmud said, “India, the world’s fifth economy, has the lowest amount of reserves in the last two years. Pakistan is breaking the reserve. We knew that the economy of Bhutan, a country of only 500,000 people, is standing on a solid foundation, but Bhutan and even the United Kingdom, including various European countries, are consuming reserves. The United States that never uses reserve fuel, always uses imported fuel, is consuming its reserve fuel because it does not have enough money to buy fuel. ‘These are documented and published everywhere’, if you search on the internet, you will also find this information. So we are better than many countries in the way Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is managing the country in this global context.
The minister said that if there is a crisis in the world, if there is a disaster in the country, one party will do this, that will happen, they are trying to spread fear among the people. At the beginning of Corona, they said ‘millions of people will die without food, dead bodies will be lying on the streets’. By God’s grace not a single person died without food. Again when corona vaccine was brought from serum institute, BNP openly spread rumors in front of public that this Indian vaccine will not work, don’t accept it. What can a responsible opposition say! I have not seen criticism of it. Later they took the vaccination, some secretly, some openly.
In the afternoon, a three-member delegation led by Jami Spykerman, director of the Asia-Pacific region of the United States’ National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) visited Bangladesh. Hasan met Mahmud. Awami League Deputy Propaganda Secretary Aminul Islam Amin was present at this time. At this time, the minister highlighted various aspects of the proper development of democracy in Bangladesh under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. NDI representatives appreciated the overall development of Bangladesh.
