Govt. takes up projects for complete dev. of communication sector: PM

Prime Minister and Leader of the House Sheikh Hasina today told the parliament that her government is going to take a number of development schemes to make sure complete development of the communication sector.

“The success of the government in communication sector in fulfilling the promises is now universally recognized and appreciated,” she said while replying to a tabled question of the ruling Awami League lawmaker Noor Uddin Chowdhury during Prime Minister’s question-answer session.

The Prime Minister gave a brief description of various projects and future plans of her government for development of the communication sector.

She said that the Bridges Division has taken various plans for the development of the communication network in the coming days.

The projects include- construction of 40 kilometer long Dhaka East-West Elevated Expressway, construction of 258 km subway in Dhaka city, construction of 86 km Dhaka Inner Elevated Circular Road and construction of 2.25 km bridge over Meghna river on Bhulta-Araihajar-Bancharampur-Nabinagar road, she said.

The future plans also include: construction of 10.49 km bridge over Tentulia and Kalabadar rivers on Barishal-Bhola road; construction of 1.59 km bridge over Ariyal Kha river on Rahmatpur-Babuganj-Muladi Hijla-Mehendiganj road in Barisal district, she continued.

Replying to another question from AL lawmaker from Naogaon Shahiduzzaman Sarker, the Leader of the House said her government has been taking a number of measures to discourage unnecessary imports and increase remittance income.

She said that the foreign exchange reserve was 32.94 billion dollars in 2017-18 fiscal.

She said that due to inflationary pressures and post-Covid demand growth, imports have increased in the 2021-2022 fiscal year, creating some pressure on Bangladesh’s trade balance.

“As a result, although foreign exchange reserves reached to all-time high $48.06 billion in August 2022, it subsequently began to decline due to increase of foreign exchange demand during post-Covid period,” she added.

According to the latest statistics in May 31, the amount of reserves is 29.87 billion dollars which was sufficient to meet up import expenses of more than four months, she also said.

In response to another question from AL lawmaker, Mahfuzur Rahman from Chattogram, Sheikh Hasina said that about 55,000 hectares of unused land have already been brought under cultivation.

Highlighting the various steps taken by the government in the agriculture sector, she said that as a result of the adoption and implementation of the government’s agriculture-friendly policies, the production of rice, maize, potatoes, vegetables, fruits and other crops have been continuously increasing.

Bangladesh has secured third position in rice production in the world, she said adding that Bangladesh’s position is among the 10 top countries in producing 22 agricultural products.

The Premier said that the government has been trying to continue agricultural production to deal with the current global crisis caused by Covid-19 pandemic and Russia-Ukraine war.