The minister, also BNP secretary general, was addressing as the chief guest the 28th annual general meeting of the bank in Dhaka.

"The government is considering sincerely the proposal to make the Co-operative Bank a full fledged commercial bank," he said adding, "This is to be done only to provide more opportunities for the co-operatives."

Bhuiyan further said the government agreed to deposit Tk 500 million as the security money in the Bangladesh Bank for reintroducing the loan scheme of the Co-operative Bank.

"Procedures are on to provide the bank with a one-time seed capital and to involve it in micro-credit programme," he added.

The minister, however, urged borrowers from the bank to take the opportunity of sanctioning new loans by paying the instalments of their original credit amounts.

Secretary for Rural Development and Co-operatives Division Hedayetul Islam Chowdhury, Registrar of the Department of Co-operatives Sheikh Altaf Ali, President of National Co-operative Union Abdul Ali Mridha and directors of the bank also spoke at the meeting presided over by Deputy Minister for Land and Chairman of the bank Ruhul Kuddus Talukder Dulu.