The Foreign Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) requested the government to declare weekend holiday on Saturday and Sunday instead of the present Friday-Saturday closure for making Bangladesh's trade and business with international markets faster and easier.

A FICCI delegation led by its president Waliur Rahman Bhuiyan made the request when they met prime minister Sheikh Hasina at her office yesterday and discussed a wide array issues related to trade, commerce and investment. Principal secretary to the prime minister MA Karim and press secretary to the prime minister Abul Kalam Azad were present. The FICCI delegation told the prime minister that Bangladesh's holiday on Friday differs with the holiday in many developed countries of the world, and the mismatch makes bilateral trade and business "excessively time-consuming". They welcomed the government decision to lift gas resources, particularly from the offshore blocks, saying that this will boost the country's economy.

Hasina told the FICCI delegation that the government would further strengthen the national Board of Investment (BOI) "to attract investment from both home and abroad". She called for more foreign investment in various sectors of Bangladesh to help the government attain the development goals. Hasina told the FICCI delegation that the government was thinking about modernizing the transport system of the capital and its surrounding areas by introducing ring road, modern rail communications linking the capital and the adjacent districts and setting up overpasses inside the city. "These measures will also attract the investors as well as make the city life more comfortable and faster," the prime minister told her audience from the community of foreign investors in the country.

Hasina said the present government is strongly committed to ensuring transparency and accountability in every sphere of society and the state. "As for example, the government has kept the education policy on the ministry's website for public opinion," she said. Hasina expressed her commitment to turn Bangladesh into a food-sufficient country like in the past AL tenure. She observed: "Bangladesh could not attain its development at desired level as military force captured the state power for times."

About the longstanding electricity crisis of the country, Sheikh Hasina said the government would encourage the people and the owners of small mills and factories, educational institutions to use Independent Power Plant (IPP) and solar panel to reduce pressure on the national grid. City-dwellers' accommodation facilities were also discussed in the meeting. About this, the prime minister told the FICCI delegation that every multi-storey building in the capital and elsewhere in the country must have all facilities, including car parking.

-The Independent