FM seeks stronger efforts to promote economic diplomacy

Guests attend at First Economic Diplomacy Week programme at the Foreign Service Academy in Dhaka on Thursday. — New Age photo

Foreign minister AK Abdul Momen has sought stronger efforts to promote economic diplomacy, noting that attracting foreign direct investment has always been a cornerstone of their economic diplomacy.

‘As we have lost two years due to the pandemic, the time has come to further bolster our efforts,’ he said, adding that their endeavour to effectively pursue economic diplomacy would also immensely contribute to the timely attainment of sustainable development goals.

Momen was speaking as chief guest at the inaugural session of the first Economic Diplomacy Week that began at the Foreign Service Academy in the capital on Thursday.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in collaboration with the relevant ministries and divisions, is hosting the programme as the country seeks prosperity through economic diplomacy.

Foreign secretary Masud Bin Momen, secretary (maritime affairs unit) Rear Admiral (retd) Md Khurshed Alam, and reactor at Foreign Service Academy ambassador Asad Alam Siam, among others, spoke at the session.

Momen said that the economic diplomacy package had five components, and these were more foreign investment, more trade and export diversity, gainful employment of human resources both at home and abroad, transfer of technology, and quality services to the Bangladeshi diaspora and to others.

He said that the ministry of commerce, teaming up with Bangladesh missions abroad, was in the process of finalising preferential and free trade deals with a number of countries.

‘We have already conducted feasibility studies on 23 countries for bilateral and regional trade agreements, free trade agreements, and comprehensive economic agreements. We are opening up new markets,’ the foreign minister said.

Foreign minister Momen said that Bangladesh’s stable growth and political stability had raised tens of millions to ‘middle class and affluence’ status.

Apart from being a booming domestic market, he said, Bangladesh is also a strategic hub linking India, China, and the ASEAN countries.

Momen hoped that Bangladesh would be a developed nation by 2041 and the country’s founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s dream of building a Golden Bengal would be realised.

‘I am confident that the vision of prime minister Sheikh Hasina, emphasising economic diplomacy and its implementation by all concerned ministries and authorities of the government will help realise this dream,’ he said.

According to Momen, Bangladesh is now globally praised for its generosity and capacity in temporarily sheltering over a million Rohingyas on its land, despite the fact that one-seventh of its population had to seek refuge in neighbouring India in 1971.

A country that was known to be ‘controlled by nature and not by men’ due to recurrent natural calamities, Bangladesh has now become a global example of disaster preparedness, he said.

Renowned scholars, high officials, business leaders, and members of academia are also attending the two-day programme (Thursday and Saturday).

The issues related to the blue economy, climate action, sustainable development goals, agricultural innovations, contact farming, food security, connectivity, human resources and skills development, and trade liberalisation are being discussed to identify the challenges and opportunities in these areas.