Forex reserves should be utilised: PM

The country's forex reserves should not be left intact, it has to be utilised, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said.

She said this while addressing a rally at the capital's Suhrawardy Udyan as chief guest, marking the Golden Jubilee (founding anniversary) of Jubo League this afternoon (November 11, 2022).

Bangladesh is moving forward despite so many setbacks, she said.

"The BNP talks about the reserve. When BNP was in power back in 1996, during the general elections, the reserve was at $2.6 billion. We raised it to $48 billion now."

Bangladesh had to import products starting from Covid-19 vaccine all the way to edible oil. Two years later, when the world economy opened up, capital machinery came, she said.

The government invested $8 billion separately in different sectors. It will not be possible to keep the reserve intact. It needs to be utilized, she added.

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Go to village and cultivate land, PM tells Jubo League men

"Today, we have bought aircraft with our own money. We are dredging the Payra river with our own finances. Otherwise, we will have to take the money from a foreign bank. The money has to be returned with interest. Today, we took this money from our own bank. We are using our own reserves."

Hasina said the government aims to get the economy moving.

Those who were in power and indulged in corruption and looting are now hatching conspiracies, she alleged.

"Our aim is to make the economy dynamic," she said, adding that those who were in power and those who indulged in corruption and looting are now making conspiracy.