Only income generating loans will be taken from development partners: LGRD minister
He said this yesterday speaking as chief guest at a discussion on 'Bangabandhu's work and biography’ and Doa Mahfil programme
Only those investments which would be profitable for the country, or income generating, will be taken from development partners after scrutiny, said Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Minister Md Tajul Islam.
The minister also said various development partners, including different countries and organisations, expressed interest in investing about $11 billion in the overall development of the country, including the development of infrastructure.
He said this yesterday speaking as chief guest at a discussion on 'Bangabandhu's work and biography' and Doa Mahfil programme, said a press release.
The local government division organised the programme at the Department of Public Health and Engineering in the capital on the occasion of National Mourning Day.
The minister said, "If we invest money given by development partners in various productive sectors, then the country will be in a profitable position even after paying off the loans. Loans are taken by all countries for the development of their countries, welfare of their people, to improve their standard of living. Loans of all countries are paid by their people, because the money that the government uses to repay the debt is basically the people's money."
He said some people cannot appreciate the unprecedented development that has taken place in the country under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. After the assassination of Bangabandhu on 15 August in 1975, the development of the country stopped, he continued.
The country turned from poor to poorer, he went on. The country was known as a nation of beggars and poor people at that time, he said.
The Public Health Engineering Department's Chief Engineer, Md Saifur Rahman, LGED Chief Engineer Sheikh Mohammad Mohsin, National Institute of Local Government Director General Saleh Ahmad Mozaffar, and Dhaka WASA Managing Director Taqsem A Khan, also spoke at the programme chaired by Local Government Division Secretary, Mohammad Mezbah Uddin Chowdhury.