After Bangladesh’s transition from Least Developed Country (LDC) status to developing country status, there will be some benefits in business and trade. There are also several challenges to face. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has directed the ministers and officials to make necessary preparations to face these challenges. Besides, he also talked about the determination to make use of the international benefits that will be created after the transition from LDC. The Prime Minister gave this instruction at the meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) on Thursday. The meeting was held at the Planning Commission’s NEC conference room in the capital’s Sherebangla Nagar. The prime minister presided over it as the sole chairperson. Ministers, State Ministers and Secretaries related to the project raised in Ekne were present in the meeting.

At the end of the meeting, Planning Minister Major General (retd) Abdus Salam and State Minister Shahiduzzaman Sarkar presented various instructions of the Prime Minister and the details of the meeting in a briefing. In the briefing, other directives of the Prime Minister include speedy completion of projects in the final stages and construction of Union Parishad buildings in all unions. In the construction of these buildings, rain water retention system and solar system are kept. Apart from this, the Prime Minister also directed the officials to pay special attention to prevent floods and river erosion in the districts of North Bengal.

11 projects were approved in the meeting. The implementation of these projects will cost 8 thousand 426 million taka. Of this money, 7 thousand 940 crores is the government’s own and 486 crores is the loan of development partners. The approved projects are – Construction of Bangladesh Chancery Complex and Residential Building in Cairo, Egypt. An additional expenditure of Tk 93 crore has been approved for the procurement of 20 meter gauge diesel electric locomotives and 150 meter gauge passenger carriages for railways. Upgrading Kashinathpur-Dashuria-Natore-Rajshahi-Nawabganj-Kansat-Sonamsjid-Baliadighi National Highway to proper standard and width.