Politics
Chinese envoy: Will expedite Rohingya repatriation efforts through talks
Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Li Jiming on Thursday said his country was trying to expedite the Rohingya repatriation efforts through holding talks with Bangladesh and Myanmar.
China always remains beside Bangladesh when it faces any problem, said Ambassador Li while attending a function at Cox’s Bazar Sadar Hospital.
Ambassador Li noted that China had been playing a role of “mediator” between Bangladesh and Myanmar during the past five years since the latest crisis happened in Rakhine State of Myanmar and had been working with relevant stakeholders, including UNHCR, to facilitate the early repatriation of the displaced people.
The Chinese envoy said throughout the Covid-19 pandemic China had stood beside Bangladesh with necessary assistance and it would continue to do so for developing the country’s medical sector.
He said Cox’s Bazar was a significant location across the globe, so its Sadar hospital also bore great importance.
Ambassador Li handed over medical equipment – bio-chemistry analyzers, dental chairs, light cure machines and centrifuge machines – to 250-bed district Sadar hospital in Cox’s Bazar as a gift.
Cox’s Bazar Medical College Dean Professor Dr Anupam Barua accepted the equipment on behalf of the hospital.
Lawmaker of Cox’s Bazar-3 Shaimum Sarwar Kamal MP and Deputy Commissioner of Cox’s Bazar District Md Mamunur Rashid, Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner Shar Rezwan Hayat also attended and addressed the ceremony.
Ambassador Li first extended his sincerest wishes for the upcoming holy Eid-ul-Fitr and said that the Bangladesh government and people, though with its own limited resources, had generously hosted more than a million displaced people from Myanmar.
“This has imposed a heavy medical burden on the local health resources. Today, the Embassy of China in Bangladesh donated a bunch of badly-needed medical equipment as a good will of the Chinese government and people,” he said.
All the medical equipment is state-of-the-art and of superior quality, which will come a long way to strengthen the capacity of Sadar hospital, said the ambassador.
In future, he said, China will continue supporting local health facilities with more new initiatives.
Lawmaker Kamal has said that China is one of the most important development partners of Bangladesh, and the Cox’s Bazar District expects more cooperation from China in various fields including the health sector in future.
Rohingya camps visit
Earlier on Wednesday, ambassador Li went into the settlement camps in Cox’s Bazar and had in-depth exchanges with the displaced people from Myanmar.
Ambassador Li visited 10 households of the displaced people in camps, and tried to learn about their living conditions and major concerns, according to the Chinese Embassy in Dhaka.
He said China had been making efforts to improve the conditions in the camps and it would continue serving as a bridge of communication between Bangladesh and Myanmar, and playing a positive role in facilitating early repatriation.
Ambassador Li also visited two repatriation centers and one learning center in the camp area.
The government has appointed internationally renowned human rights advocate Irene Khan as Bangladesh’s permanent representative to the United Nations, granting her the rank of state minister.
The Cabinet Division issued a gazette notification on Wednesday confirming her contractual appointment.
According to the notification, Irene Khan will receive the rank, salary, allowances and other benefits of a state minister while serving as Bangladesh’s permanent representative and ambassador to the UN.
She will succeed Salahuddin Noman Chowdhury, the current permanent representative to Bangladesh’s UN Mission. Foreign ministry officials said Chowdhury is set to become the country’s next foreign secretary.
Khan has served as the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression since Aug 1, 2020, becoming the first woman to hold the mandate since it was established in 1993.
An internationally recognised advocate for human rights, gender equality and social justice, she also teaches at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva.
She was secretary general of London-based Amnesty International from 2001 to 2009, becoming the first woman to lead the global human rights organisation. During her tenure, Amnesty expanded its work on economic, social and cultural rights alongside political and civil rights, and launched its first global campaign to end violence against women and girls.
From 2012 to 2019, Khan headed the International Development Law Organization (IDLO), an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to the rule of law and sustainable development.
She previously served as a visiting professor at the State University of New York Law School in 2011 and as chancellor of the University of Salford in the United Kingdom from 2009 to 2015.
Khan began her professional career with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), where she worked for 21 years in headquarters and field operations, including as chief of mission in India.
She has also served on the World Bank Gender Advisory Council, the UNAIDS High Level Panel on HIV Prevention and Human Rights, and the UN Global Compact Advisory Council. She has been a governing board member of the Overseas Development Institute in the UK, BRAC and Uganda-based Barefoot Law.
Born in Bangladesh, Khan studied at University of Manchester and Harvard Law School. She has received several international honours, including the Sydney Peace Prize, for her contribution to human rights.
Bangladesh
Bangladesh extends curbs on govt-funded foreign travel, tightens rules on official vehicle purchases
The government has extended restrictions on government-funded overseas travel for public officials in the ongoing fiscal year and tightened rules on the purchase of official vehicles as part of efforts to reduce public expenditure.
The Finance Division issued a notification on Wednesday saying the measures are aimed at ensuring the proper use of limited public resources, bringing inflation to a tolerable level and maintaining macroeconomic stability.
Under the directive, government officials and employees will continue to be barred from attending seminars, symposiums and workshops abroad at government expense.
The notification also imposes stricter controls on the purchase of vehicles under both development and operational budgets.
Only vehicles included in the approved Table of Organisation and Equipment (TO&E) that are more than 10 years old may be replaced, it said.
New government institutions will require prior approval from the Finance Division before purchasing TO&E-listed vehicles.
The Finance Division also instructed all government agencies to suspend expenditure from all types of block allocations.
Funding for the purchase of all categories of vehicles, including motor vehicles, watercraft and aircraft, has also been halted.
However, vehicles used for transporting personnel rather than for personal use may be replaced if they are more than a decade old.
Newly established government institutions may also procure such vehicles only with Finance Division approval.
The notification also states that, except for ambulances and vehicles used for security purposes, all replacement or newly purchased government cars and jeeps must be fully electric.
The government said the measures are intended to curb operational spending while supporting broader efforts to maintain fiscal discipline and economic stability.
Environment
Sovereign guarantees limit renegotiation of private power plant contracts: power minister
Power Minister Iqbal Hassan Mahmood has said the government’s ability to renegotiate costs, including capacity charges, under contracts signed with private power plants by the previous administration is limited because those agreements carry sovereign guarantees.
However, he told parliament on Wednesday that the government is negotiating with power producers to eliminate late payment fees on overdue bills.
The minister made the remarks while responding to a supplementary question from Jamaat lawmaker Mardia Mumtaz during the parliamentary session.
Mardia asked whether the government had a concrete plan to reduce capacity charges, which account for a significant share of electricity subsidies and overall power sector costs despite recent tariff increases.
In reply, Iqbal said the previous government had provided sovereign guarantees in contracts with private power companies.
“A sovereign guarantee is a guarantee by the state. Cancelling such guarantees requires a legal process that takes considerable time,” he said.
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