Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen has sought a stronger role from the heads of Bangladesh Missions abroad to boost trade and investment, and improve the quality of services that the missions offer to expatriates.

He also alerted the heads of missions about the Prime Minister’s zero tolerance policy to corruption and advised them to avoid any incident that may harm the reputation of the respective mission, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Bangladesh as a whole.

“You all know our Prime Minister’s policy is zero tolerance to corruption. I don’t want to see anything in our missions abroad that harms our reputation. We don’t want to hear any such thing. You remain alert on that front,” Dr Momen conveyed the message to Bangladesh Missions head abroad seeking their strong position against corruption.

READ: Bangladesh seaweed is a goldmine waiting to be tapped: FM

The Foreign Minister came up with a slew of suggestions during his recent virtual interactions with the Ambassadors and High Commissioners of Bangladesh outlining the course of actions in the New Year – 2022 to ensure quality services without compromising with honesty and sincerity.

State Minister for Foreign Minister Md Shahriar Alam, Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen, Secretary (East) Mashfee Binte Shams, Secretary (West) Shabbir Ahmad Chowdhury and Secretary (Maritime Affairs Unit) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Rear Admiral (retd) Md Khurshed Alam also joined the interactions.

In the extensive interactions, Dr Momen said steps must be taken to improve the quality of services, increase investment flow to Bangladesh and boost Bangladesh’s trade with the partner countries.   

“We need to find innovative ways to do that. If you can do it, it’ll be helpful to achieve our goals. This is something I think I would expect from you,” he told Bangladesh envoys abroad.

Talking about the presence of a vicious circle of “brokers” around some of the missions in the Middle East, Malaysia and Italy, the Foreign Minister suggested the Bangladesh envoys in those countries act decisively against those strong brokers.

“If you’re sincere and honest, we can tell you that we’ll give you all required support from the Ministry,” he said, hoping that they can get rid of the brokers providing modern technology-based services to the service seekers.

Dr Momen suggested the envoys interact frequently with the Bangladesh community abroad -- at least once in every 15 days -- and help them know about the services that can be availed of using technology-based tools.

READ: Brand Bangladesh positively: FM tells officers of Bangladesh missions abroad

“I want to see each of our missions abroad to work as a team taking all the wings and maintaining coordination. We must work as a unit. We’ve to work as a team,” he said.

Dr Momen said he receives some tiny allegations from time to time but the missions can find out ways easily to address those issues. “We want to see that things are done with utmost sincerity.”

The Foreign Minister felt for a functional hotline in each mission and assured of providing necessary support to ensure this important service so that people get the information instantly they require. “This is your responsibility, too. Our ministry’s dignity depends on your work.”

He said Bangladesh Missions abroad will have to work for finding new labour markets and create opportunities there for Bangladeshi workers.

Such efforts will help achieve further development of the country with increased remittances flow to Bangladesh by the workers, he said.

“Nobody can stop us if we can make our labour force better skilled and send them abroad,” Dr Momen said, putting emphasis on diversification of labour markets as the majority of the Bangladeshi workers are currently employed in the Middle East.

The Foreign Minister gave various directions for the implementation of Economic Diplomacy and Public Diplomacy as a strategic diplomatic initiative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to make Bangladesh an upper middle-income country by 2031 and a developed and prosperous country by 2041.

Referring to the recent recruitment of people in Romania, the Foreign Minister said that they need to increase their diplomatic efforts to send manpower to other countries as well.

He called for increased contacts with the governments of African countries to create opportunities for sending Bangladeshi workers there through contract farming.