JS body questions export targets for foreign missions

The current method of fixing export targets for Bangladesh missions abroad is illogical and unacceptable as it is done arbitrarily, a parliamentary committee said yesterday.
The parliamentary standing committee on foreign ministry said foreign missions have failed to perform their jobs, as they could not achieve the export targets.
The export target, which the committee said, was set in an unrealistic way. It ruined Bangladesh's reputation in many countries, the committee added.
The House watchdog asked the related ministries to prepare a 'credible and logical' way of fixing the targets.
Foreign ministry officials said they would form an inter-ministerial committee.
Authorities set export targets for different foreign missions of Bangladesh and do not discuss with the embassy officials, Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali, chief of the parliamentary body, told The Daily Star.
"The whole process is unacceptable and illogical," Ali, also a former ambassador and Awamileague lawmaker, added.
"You'll be astonished hearing that the ministry has increased the export target for the next year by 20 percent without doing any market research of a particular country.”
He said the committee has asked the foreign ministry to interact with both the foreign and local media regularly to highlight government's achievements.
Of 44 diplomatic missions abroad, 18 have failed to achieve their export targets for the July-April period, said Faruk Khan, commerce minister, in parliament on June 16.