US$10,493m remitted to country in FY23: PM Hasina tells JS

The prime minister also said discussions are on to produce hydroelectricity from sea water

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina speaks in the Jatiya SangsadFile photo

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday told the Jatiya Sangsad (National Parliament) that the country has received US$ 10,493 million remittances till December of the current fiscal year.

“Till December of the current fiscal, over US$ 10,493 million was remitted to the country,” she said while responding to a tabled question from Jatiya Party lawmaker Md. Rustum Ali Faraji from Pirojpur-3 constituency.

Mentioning that Bangladesh is a high remittance receiving country, the Leader of the House further said despite the global Covid-19 pandemic, the remittances received in the financial years 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 were US$ 24.77 and US$ 21.03 billion respectively.

Highlighting various steps taken in the last few years to increase the flow of remittances, she said that workers have been encouraged to send remittances through proper banking channels which helped increasing the flow of remittances by sending more skilled workers.

Besides, she said, the government has continued to give recognition through declaring commercially important persons and special citizens of the non-resident and expatriate Bangladeshi wage earners to encourage more remittances.

If possible, feasibility study of hydropower generation at Matarbari, Maheshkhali or Banshkhali will be done
Prime minister Sheikh Hasina

Replying to another tabled question from ruling party lawmaker Anwar Hossain Khan, the prime minister said discussions are on to produce hydroelectricity from sea water.

Referring to the new concept of hydropower generation from sea water, she said that discussions are underway with all the companies that gave proposals in this regard.

She added: “If possible, feasibility study of hydropower generation at Matarbari, Maheshkhali or Banshkhali will be done”.

The prime minister also said that in some countries in the world, electricity is generated by using the tides of the sea, which is costly and has not appeared as commercially viable.

She said, “There is currently no plan to set up such a power plant as it is costlier”.

Mentioning that it is very costlier, she said that in future, if the cost of constructing such a power plant comes down, the plan of using the tides of the Bay of Bengal for power generation can be adopted by building a power plant.

In response to ruling party lawmaker Kazim Uddin Ahmed’s question, the prime minister said that a record number of 1,113,374 workers have been employed abroad in 2022 due to the government’s effective measures.

“Of them, the number of women workers is 105,466,” she added.

She said that currently Bangladesh exports manpower to 168 countries and the government wanted to reduce manpower export dependency in Middle East countries.

“For that purpose, step is on to export manpower in Eastern Europe and East Asian countries,” she said.

Responding to another ruling party lawmaker Mahfuzur Rahman’s question, she said that 1,558 bridges and 7,498 culverts have been constructed and reconstructed during the tenure of the incumbent government.

She said, “Improvement of 908.49km road to four lanes or more is in progress. Out of this, 235.03 km of roads have already been made into four lanes or more.”

In replying to the question of ruling party member AKM Rahmatullah, the prime minister said 182,352 out of 187,290 valiant freedom fighters have been given digital certificates and 95,245 smart ID cards by the Ministry of Liberation War Affairs.