News Brief

             The President Md. Abdul Hamid will leave Dhaka today for Nepal at the invitation of his Nepalese Counterpart Bidhya Devi Bhandari. The President will pay a four-day state visit to Nepal from November 12 to 15. The President is scheduled to return home on November 15. Meanwhile, the President has urged the politicians to build up a fair and dynamic political environment for the welfare of mass people. The President made the call while addressing a memorial discussion on former Jatiya Sangsad Speaker and noted diplomat Humayun Rasheed Choudhury marking his 92nd birth anniversary at Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy in Dhaka yesterday. The President said, politicians must take the responsibility of building a fair and progressive political environment throughout the country and the politics should be pursued for the welfare of the mass people.

            Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has urged the world community to take appropriate measures for sustainable repatriation of Rohingyas to Myanmar saying over 1.1 milion displaced people are not only a threat to the security for Bangladesh but also for the region. The Premier came up with the call while opening the three-day "Dhaka Global Dialogue-2019" at Hotel InterContinental in the capital yesterday. Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies and India's Observer Research Foundation jointly organised the dialogue. Sheikh Hasina said, Bangladesh is always active to enhance peaceful and cooperative relations in the region of the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean. Over 150 delegates from over 50 countries are taking part in the dialogue to discuss, ideate and debate the most pressing global imperatives.

            The Cabinet has approved in principle the draft of The Bangladesh Public-Private Partnership Law, 2019 keeping a provision of undertaking and implementing the G2G projects in the existing act. The approval came from the weekly cabinet meeting held at Bangladesh Secretariat in Dhaka yesterday with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair. After the meeting, Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam briefing the  reporters said, the Bangladesh Public-Private Partnership Act, 2015” was framed to create a partnership with private sector by attracting local and foreign investment aimed at improving living standard of the people and expediting the country’s socio-economic progress as well as building infrastructures.

            Gambia on behalf of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation yesterday filed a case at the International Court of Justice accusing Myanmar of committing genocide against its Rohingya Muslim minority. Foreign Minister Dr A K Abdul Momen gave the information to the reporters in Dhaka yesterday. Both Gambia and Myanmar are signatories to the 1948 Genocide Convention, which not only prohibits states from committing genocide but also compels all signatory states to prevent and punish the crime of genocide.

            Bangladesh High Commissioner to India Syed Muazzem Ali has sought international support for the resolution that sponsored jointly by the OIC and EU on human rights violation of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. The Bangladesh Envoy made the urge as he was briefing 45 New Delhi-based foreign diplomats, including heads of the mission who are concurrently accredited to Bangladesh in New Delhi yesterday. Meanwhile, the government has appointed Muhammad Imran, currently serving as Ambassador of Bangladesh to the United Arab Emirates, as the new High Commissioner of Bangladesh to India. Imran is a career foreign service officer belonging to the 1986 batch of Bangladesh Civil Service Foreign Affairs cadre. He will replace current Bangladesh High Commissioner to India Syed Muazzem Ali.

            Road Transport and Bridges Minister and Obaidul Quader while addressing the council of Dhaka City South Unit of Awami Swechchhasebak League at Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh Auditorium in Dhaka said, there will be no room for extortionists, drug peddlers and corrupt people in the fresh committees of the Swechchhasebak League. The Minister also said, the committees of Dhaka City South and North units of Awami Swechchhasebak League will be announced on the day of the organization’s national council slated for November 16.                  

-2-

            Information Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud responding to a query at the Jatiya Sangsad in Dhaka yesterday said, a total of 45 private television channels so far have been approved and 30 of these private channels are on the transmission. The Minister said, Bangladesh Television has been airing it’s programme through the satellite since May 30 in 2019 while the thirty other private television channels are being broadcasting their programme through the Bangabandu satellite-1 from October 1, 2019. The government has taken effective measures to broadcast Bangladesh Betar programme through the Bangabandhu Satellite-1, he added. Meanwhile the Information Minister while addressing a discussion on Eid-e-Miladunnabi at Kazi Bashir Auditorium in city’s Gulistan yesterday said, those who cut tendons of the hands and legs of human beings in the name of Islam, a religion of peace, are enemies of the religion. Noting that Islam does not support militancy, the Minister said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina protested the perception regarding involvement of Islam with militancy in the international arena.

                The first ever Bangladeshi Taka-denominated bond dubbed as Bangla Bond, amounting equivalent to US$ 10 million, debuted yesterday on the London Stock Exchange. The Bangla Bond was listed on the LSE by the International Finance Corporation, a private sector arm of World Bank, at a ring bell ceremony in London last morning. This bond will have a 3-year maturity, with a 6.3 percent annual rate of interest. The IFC will be the guarantor of this bond in the international market. Speaking on the occasion, Finance Minister A H M Mustafa Kamal hoped Bangla Bond would help to raise money from overseas investment, which will be invested back in Bangladesh for further strengthening its private sector.

            Bangladesh has received more than one percent of total global LNG production in the first 12 months after entering the LNG import marketplace as the 39th country in 2018. This was revealed yesterday at a workshop in the capital that brought together over 120 industry leaders from the public and private sectors to discuss pertinent topics surrounding the global LNG industry as well as Bangladesh gas market. Prime Minister’s Energy Advisor Dr. Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury attended the function.

             At least 15 passengers were killed and over 100 others injured in a fatal collision of two trains on Dhaka-Chattogram route at Mandbagh area in Brahmanbaria early Tuesday. The deadly collision between Dhaka-bound Turnanishita from Chattogram and Chattogram-bound Udayan Express from Sylhet took place around 3am, said Deputy Commissioner Hayat-Ud-Dowllah Khan, who visited the spot right after the crash.  President Md. Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury also extended deep condolences to the families who have lost their loved ones in the accident and prayed for the eternal peace of the victims.

            State Minister for Disaster Management and Relief Dr Md Enamur Rahman has said cyclone ‘Bulbul’ did not cause major damage in the country’s coastal areas due to the prompt initiative of the government. The State Minister told the newsmen at a press briefing regarding the latest situation of the cyclone in Dhaka yesterday. The authorities made adequate contingency plan to deal with possible destruction in the coastal areas due to the cyclonic storm ‘Bulbul’, the state Minister said.

             The bodies of nine fishermen, who went missing in a trawler capsize in the Meghna River in Charfasson upazila of Bhola on Sunday, were recovered from the Machhkata River at Mehendiganj upazila in Bhola on Monday night, taking the death toll from the incident to 10. Meanwhile, different media reports say, at least 26 people died and scores others injured while some 10,000 houses and crops on more than 2 lakh hectares of land damaged as cyclone Bulbul left a trail of destruction in the country’s coastal districts on Sunday.

Surath Kumar Sarker

Principal Information Officer

Phone -9546091