PM seeks UAE investment in economic zones
UAE minister says her country is interested in importing surplus food from Bangladesh
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday called upon the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to invest in Bangladesh’s economic zones for mutual benefits.
“Bangladesh will welcome the UAE’s investment in these zones,” she said when UAE Minister of State for Food Security Mariam Almheiri paid a courtesy call on her Jatiya Sangsad Office.
“We are setting up 100 economic zones in the country for rapid industrialisation and employment generation, and a lot of facilities are there,” the premier said, adding that entrepreneurs can establish industries in the zones in their own choice.
After the meeting, PM’s Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim briefed reporters.
He said the prime minister also urged UAE entrepreneurs to set up food processing industries in the zones.
The press secretary said the UAE state minister highly appreciated the tremendous development of Bangladesh’s agriculture sector. She expressed her country’s keen interest to import surplus food from Bangladesh.
In this connection, the prime minister briefly described the country’s success stories in food production through diversification of crops.
She mentioned the innovation of cultivating paddy three times a year instead of once, and increasing investment in the agriculture research that has turned Bangladesh into a country with a food surplus.
The prime minister also told the UAE minister that scientists of the country have invented various crops -- including paddy -- that are tolerant to salinity, flood and droughts, .
Sheikh Hasina’s daughter Saima Wazed Hossain Putul, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam, Principal Secretary Md Nojibur Rahman and Military Secretary Major General Mia Mohammad Zainul Abedin were also present at the meeting.