October 18, 1972

CASTRO, ALLENDE GREET BANGABANDHU

President Allende of Chile and President Fidel Castro of Cuba expressed their good wishes to the people and the government of Bangladesh and high esteem for Prime Minister Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. This was stated by Ali Aksad, general secretary of Bangladesh Peace Council, who had arrived in Dhaka from Santiago after attending the World Peace Council Presidential Committee meeting.

President Allende expressed hope for growing friendship between Chile and Bangladesh. Fidel Castro, commenting on the emergence of Bangladesh, said, "More and more progressive republics are emerging in the world map and Bangladesh is the latest example."

He also stressed on Cuba-Bangladesh friendship and expressed hope that Bangladesh would play her role in maintaining world peace.

BANGLADESH VOTED TO UNESCO AGENDA            

The general conference of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) votes today to include the admission of Bangladesh on its agenda. This virtually assures that Bangladesh will become the 130th member of the organisation when a membership vote will be taken tomorrow. China casts a negative ballot in today's agenda vote.

BANGLADESH RESERVE NOW £87 MILLION

The foreign exchange reserve of Bangladesh now, after 10 months of its liberation, stands at 87 million pounds sterling, discloses Bangladesh Bank Governor AN Hamidullah today. Besides, Bangladesh can at any time draw 60 million pounds sterling from the International Monetary Fund. He adds that it only demonstrates the inherent capabilities of the economy of Bangladesh to quickly absorb all shocks it received during the war. As a matter of fact, the country's foreign exchange reserve as it stands today is much higher than that in the Pakistan era, which stood at 35 million pounds during the corresponding period last year.

SOURCES: October 19, 1972 issues of Bangladesh Observer, Dainik Bangla and Dainik Ittefaq.