"Bangladesh is a country with enormous potential, it is not a country of natural disasters and corruption," he said.

Masud Uddin Chowdhury, who was promoted to the post of a lieutenant general from his previous post of a major general on Thursday, was addressing a book publication ceremony in the capital's Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre as the chief guest. The book titled 'US presidents with first ladies and deputies' is edited by Din M Rana.

Masud Uddin Chowdhury in his speech sought urgent cooperation from all sections of the people to make Bangladesh a better country.

"Everybody has to contribute positively so that we can really build a better Bangladesh, a corruption free country, and so that we can have one of the best governed countries in the world."

"I am sure that the whole country is moving towards that end and we will definitely achieve that," he added.

"If we can rear our new generations properly, we will have a lovely Bangladesh where there will be no violence, and no corruption," he said adding, "We want to build our country in such a way where our new generations will be able to say proudly that they are the children of a prosperous Bangladesh."

"A process is on to submit charge sheets against a good number of corrupt people", he said.

Asked whether the drive against corruption has slowed down, Masud Uddin said, "Collecting evidence of corruption and producing them before the court is a time consuming affair."

"We don't have much of a trained manpower and relevant equipment," he added.

About the delay in putting corruption suspects on trials, he said, "It's normal because we need to abide by the present rules to carry out the trials."

"The trials will neither be under martial law nor on camera but in open courts," he said.

The book launching ceremony was organised by the Federation of Bangladesh Associations Overseas.

ON LATEST PROMOTIONS
Justifying the latest promotions of the military top brass, Lt Gen Masud Uddin Chowdhury said the promotions were long over due.

"There are many countries where the numbers of army personnel are lesser than ours but their army chiefs enjoy the rank of four-star generals," Masud said adding, "This creates some problems in respect to protocols when the army chief or any army officer goes to visit a foreign country."

He was responding to a question about Thursday's promotions of the military top brass.

"When the status of the army chief was of a lieutenant general, the number of army personnel was 50,000, now the number has multiplied thee times," he said justifying the promotions.

He also said, "We were not being able to send our army officers as force commanders to UN peacekeeping missions as there was no three-star general in the Bangladesh Army, although Bangladesh contributes the largest number of troops to UN peacekeeping missions," he added.

Having force commanders in UN peacekeeping missions is a prestigious thing for a country, Masud said.

"Now some of us will be able to join UN peacekeeping missions as force commanders as we have been promoted as three-star generals," he added.