Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina chaired the meeting held at the Cabinet Room of the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban.

“The Cabinet decided to extend the age ceiling for the governor to 67 years after discussion,” said Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam at a press briefing after the meeting.

According to clause-5 of Article 10 of the Bangladesh Bank Order 1972, the tenure of the central bank governor would be four years and the governor can be reappointed, but any person past the age of 65 cannot serve as governor, said the Cabinet Secretary.

There is no maximum age limit for the governor or the deputy governors of the central bank in the neighbouring countries – India and Sri Lanka, Islam noted.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet also approved the draft of the use of information technology by court Act 2020 (Adalat Kartik Tathya Projukti Bebohar Ain 2020) in bid to get a recent ordinance ratified by Parliament for turning it into an Act.

Amid the COVID-19 shutdown, the ordinance titled ‘Adalat Kartik Tathiya Projukti Bebohar Ordinance 2020’ has recently been promulgated allowing courts to run trial proceedings through videoconferences and other digital means.

As the pandemic made it difficult for the court to conduct trial proceedings in presence of all concerned in Bangladesh, the President on May 9 promulgated the ordinance, said the Cabinet Secretary.

Though the government and private offices including the courts have recently been reopened, the public gathering is discouraged to check COVID-19 pandemic, he said.

In this circumstance, it will have to get the ordinance ratified by the Parliament within the 30 days after the first sitting of the upcoming 8th session of the 11th parliament following placement of a bill in the House in order to make the ordinance into an act.

“Otherwise, this ordinance will lose its effectiveness after the 30 days,” he explained.

Besides, the Cabinet endorsed a proposal for the formation of a company titled Bangladesh-China Power Company (Pvt) Limited (Renewable) under a joint venture of state-owned North-West Power Generation Company Limited of Bangladesh (NWGCL) and the China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation (CMC).

It also approved the drafts of Joint Venture Agreement, Memorandum of Association and Article of Association for the formation of the proposed joint venture company (JVC).

Both the NWGCL and CMC will have 50-50 share of the proposed joint venture company. The proposed JVC will have an authorised capital of Tk 1,000 crore and a paid up capital of Tk 16 crore.

It will implement 60-Megawatt solar power plant in Pabna, 100MW solar power plant in Sirajganj, 50MW wind power plant in Payra and solar and wind power plants with total capacity of 290MW in other places.

The Cabinet also approved a proposal for ‘National Statistics Day’ on February 27 every year.