The cabinet on Monday approved a draft agreement for signing with Bhutan allowing the country to use Bangladesh ports and territory for exports and imports of goods to and from a third country.
‘The cabinet has endorsed the draft ‘Agreement on the Movement of Traffic-in-Transit and Protocol between the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh and the Royal Government of Bhutan,’ cabinet secretary Md Mahbub Hossain told a press conference at the secretariat.
He said that the deal once signed with Bhutan would allow the landlocked country to use Bangladesh territory and ports including seaports and land ports for imports and exports of products to and from another country.
‘Bhutan will be able to transport their products through Bangladesh by trucks,’ he said.
The commerce ministry placed the draft agreement seeking the cabinet’s approval for signing with Bhutan in the weekly meeting with prime minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair at her Tejgaon office.
Responding a question, the cabinet secretary said that Bhutan would separately deal with Indian authorities to cross over India by land for transporting their goods from a third country using the land and ports of Bangladesh.
Presently, India is using Bangladesh’s ports and territory to ease transportation of goods from one Indian state to another.
The cabinet approved in principle the draft of ‘Bangladesh Public Procurement Authority, 2023’ to set up a new agency to replace the Central Procurement Technical Unit under the planning ministry.
The proposed authority would provide the agencies concerned with technical support and advices for the government purchases, the cabinet secretary said.
About necessity of establishing a new authority in place of the CPTU, he said that the volume of the government purchases had increased significantly over the time.
‘In 2001, the government purchases amounted TK18,000 to Tk19,000 crore while the amount has now gone to Tk2.25 lakh crore. So it has become difficult for the unit to provide technical supports for such huge amount of purchases,’ Mahbub said.
Asked whether the PM had given any directives for containing commodity price hikes ahead of Ramadan, the cabinet secretary said he had instructed Deputy Commissioners of all districts and Upazila Nirbahi Officers in a meeting on Sunday to take legal actions if any abnormal situation arose anywhere in the country during the Ramadan.
He said that the local administrations were asked to ensure monitoring over market in Ramadan, the month of fasting for Muslims likely to begin on March 23.
Mahbub said the cabinet decided to scrap the Bogura Science and Technology University Bill, 2019 as a similar bill was approved in 2001 when the ruling Awami League was in power and to go ahead with the plan to establish the science and technology university in the district under the proposed law.
This NEWS originally published in Dhaka based News Paper The New Age.
