The United States has praised Bangladesh’s current stable environment and expressed full confidence in Prime Minister Tareque Rahman’s leadership. Washington has also said it will positively reconsider its travel advisory to encourage US businesses to make fresh investments in Bangladesh.
Sergio Gor, the US special international representative for South and Central Asian affairs, said this during a courtesy call on Prime Minister Tareque Rahman at the Prime Minister’s Office in Tejgaon, Dhaka, on Saturday morning.
The meeting, held in a warm and cordial atmosphere, featured detailed discussion of the two countries’ bilateral trade, security, cooperation in the information technology sector, and the Rohingya crisis.
At the meeting, the US special envoy said stability had returned to Bangladesh under Tareque Rahman’s leadership and that the US administration had full confidence in it.
Sergio Gor noted that, as a reflection of this confidence, the United States had positively revised its travel advisory, which would send US investors an important message that Bangladesh is now ready for investment.
At the meeting, Prime Minister Tareque Rahman called for larger US investment in Bangladesh. In particular, he sought US investment in building warehousing or storage facilities for soybean, cotton, wheat and other agricultural products.
The prime minister noted that US investment in these sectors would make it possible to build a strong and competitive supply chain.
The prime minister also reiterated his interest in US investment in Bangladesh’s information technology (IT) sector. Sergio Gor said Bangladesh had huge potential in the IT sector and that the country could in future become a US partner in the PAX Silica initiative.
The two sides also agreed to work together to restart the process of setting up laboratories in Bangladesh to test medicines and food products, with the cooperation of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
At the meeting, the US delegation shared its experience of visiting the Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar. Sergio Gor had visited the camps the previous day.
Sergio Gor warmly praised the Bangladesh government and its people for tackling the crisis and providing shelter and humanitarian aid to large numbers of Myanmar nationals.
Sergio Gor stressed that achieving a sustainable, political solution to the Rohingya crisis was extremely urgent.
Prime Minister Tareque Rahman, for his part, noted that the United States provides more than half of the financial and humanitarian aid that comes for the Rohingya at the international level. He expressed deep gratitude to the US government and people for this support.
Top administrative and diplomatic officials from both Bangladesh and the United States attended the high-level meeting.
On the Bangladesh side, those who took part included Foreign Minister Dr Khalilur Rahman, the prime minister’s foreign affairs adviser Humayun Kabir, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shama Obaid Islam, the prime minister’s advisers Rehan Asif Asad and Mahdi Amin, and Bangladesh’s ambassador to Washington, Tareq Md Ariful Islam.
On the US delegation’s side, US Ambassador to Bangladesh Brent Christensen and several senior diplomats were present.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report