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The parliamentary standing committee on the foreign affairs ministry on Sunday recommended gearing up economic diplomacy to address the post-Covid economic challenges.
This was the first meeting of any parliamentary standing committee during the coronavirus lockdown period.
Committee's chairman Col (retd) Faruk Khan presided over the meeting. Foreign minister Dr AK Abdul Momen, state minister for foreign affairs M Shahriar Alam, committee members Kazi Nabil Ahmed and Nahim Razzak, and foreign secretary Masud Bin Momen also attended it.
The committee said in the changed scenario after the coronavirus pandemic, boosting exports would be a major task to revamp the economy, said the officials who were present in the meeting.
And for that the Bangladesh missions abroad can play an important role through economic diplomacy, the meeting observed.
The meeting recommended that the Bangladesh missions should prepare a database on the product demand of different countries and send the feedback to home. This will enable Bangladesh to explore the possibility of exporting those products.
The committee wanted to know the details about deportation of Bangladeshi workers from the Middle East countries.
The foreign ministry gave the details on how the missions are engaging with the countries concerned to minimize the number of workers.
The ministry also pointed out that the Bangladesh missions were asked to provide all-out assistance to the Bangladeshis abroad to face the challenge of the pandemic.
In the meeting, the foreign ministry officials presented its activities in repatriating Bangladeshis from different countries, and foreigners to their own countries.
They also submitted a report on Bangladesh's assistance to different countries during the pandemic and on foreign assistance dispatched to Bangladesh during this period.