Bangladesh’s foreign missions to be raised to 100: Minister

The number of Bangladesh's foreign missions will be raised to 100 from 77 within 2021, said Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen on Sunday.

The minister said this while replying to a tabled starred question from Jatiya Party MP elected from Dhaka-4 Syed Abu Hossain in Parliament.

"The Foreign Ministry has planned to open foreign missions in diplomatically important countries gradually," he said.

The minister said Bangladesh currently has 77 missions in 58 countries.

Recently, it has completed its administrative process to open missions in Bucharest (Romania) and Chennai (India) while the cabinet has approved to set up a consulate general office in Florida (USA), he said.

Besides, the Public Administration Ministry has approved a plan to open missions in Wallington (New Zealand), Dublin (Ireland) Buenos Aires (Argentina), Guangzhou (China), Sao Paulo (Brazil) and Frankfurt (Germany).

"It'll be sent to the Finance Ministry very soon for its approval. A proposal for opening two other missions in Johor Bahru (Malaysia) and Oslo (Norway) is under the consideration of Finance Ministry, too," the minister said.

Replying to another tabled question from ruling party Benjir Ahmed, MP (Dhaka-20), Dr Momen said the government is implementing a project to construct or procure buildings for 31 missions and residential buildings for ambassadors/high commissioners in various countries by 2024.

The project is being implemented in three phases from 2016, he said.

He also said another project to construct buildings on own lands in Ankara, Bandar Seri Begawan, Islamabad, Thimpu, Berlin, Riyadh and Jeddah is underway.

Besides, the minister said, another process is going on for procuring lands or buildings in Lisbon, Vienna, Athens, Cairo, Hague, Putrajaya, Canberra and Beijing for some other missions.