Govt regains positive image abroad: PM

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said on Wednesday that her government is determined to take forward the country facing all odds, including the political trouble, reports UNB.
"Political disturbance has become a common phenomenon in the country; we have to continue our works facing this trouble. We're doing our jobs keeping this challenge in our mind…we're surely doing that," she said.
The Prime Minister said these while delivering her speech when a delegation of Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) met her at her office.
SEC chairman Prof Dr M Khairul Hossain led the delegation.  Commissioners of the regulatory body Prof Md Helal Uddin Nizami, Md Amzad Hossain, Arif Khan and Md A Salam Sikder were among the delegation members.
The Prime Minister said that the last three months of the last year were very much bad for the country's economy. "We passed a very bad time from October to December last year. We're working hard to get ourselves out from that bad patch," she said.
Sheikh Hasina said after assuming office this time her government engaged its all-out efforts for the welfare of the economic development of the country. "Due to our steps, we're expecting that we'll surely be able to maintain the targeted GDP growth," she said.
Hasina said that her government regained its positive image before the international community that was damaged by the previous BNP-Jamaat government through terrorism, money laundering and looting.
The SEC delegation apprised the Prime Minister of the recognition of International Organisation of Securities Commissions to the SEC by upgrading it to Grade-A category from Grade-B in December last.
Hasina said the organisation performed its due role in achieving the Grade-A in the world ranking of the IOSCO.
She said the recognition of IOSCO paved the way for further boosting foreign investment in Bangladesh as well as boosting the self-confidence of the SEC about its functional capability.
Mentioning implementation of various reform programmes in strengthening and modernising the SEC to make it more effective and time-befitting one, she said, the SEC has been made financially independent. Various time-befitting laws have been formulated to strengthen its functioning, she said.
Besides, a surveillance software of international standard has been introduced to stop irregularities and malpractices by strengthening monitoring activities in the share market, the PM added.
Hasina said all these steps ensured transparency and accountability and functional process of the regulatory body.
She mentioned that the country's economy has got a strong footing despite destructive political programmes of the opposition as well as worldwide economic meltdown as the government worked hard and implemented various programmes in a planned manner during the last five years.
The Prime Minister hoped that the country would move ahead further if the development and welfare-oriented programme undertaken during the 2009-2013 period could be implemented successfully in time.
Mentioning Bangladesh as an attractive destination of the investors, she said that her government has been able to overcome all types of obstacles including political turmoil and image crisis that were created by the BNP-Jamaat.
Speaking on the occasion, Finance Minister AMA Muhith said after assuming office in 2008 the AL government took numerous steps for strengthening the regulatory body of the capital market. As a result, the capital market of the country right now is very much vibrant, he added.
Before 2009, Muhith said, the capital market was not in a good shape as the rules and regulations were wrong.
He said right now Bangladesh desperately needs investment, and the main sources of that are capital market and foreign direct investment.
"We've already made the stock market vibrant and we'll have to do some more works in the foreign direct investment arena although we're seeing some developments in this sector," he said.
The Prime Minister extended her sincere thanks and felicitation to the SEC for their team work to achieve the global recognition for the SEC.
She said that along with other sectors, her government has brought many reforms in the stock market regulations which were easy to say but difficult to frame and execute.
In this regard, she pointed out the demutualisation of the stock markets saying the government has made the difficult reform to separate ownership of the companies from management.
She said Bangladesh has been able to come out of the grey list of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on Money Laundering, an intergovernmental organisation founded due to government's action against money laundering and terror financing.
Pointing out her government's steps to check fraudulence practices and irregularities in the share market, the Prime Minister mentioned that steps have been taken to stop the misuse of power to withdraw capital through pre-IPO private placement.
She said the government has allocated land in Agargaon for the construction of a 10-storey SEC building and undertaken a 10-year master plan for the SEC to establish modern and stable capital market.
Prime Minister's Adviser Dr Mashiur Rahman, Principal secretary Abdus Sobhan Sikdar, PMO secretary M Abul Kalam Azad, PM's special assistant Mahbubul Hoque Shakil, PM's deputy press secretaries Bijan Lal Dev and Ashraful Alam were present during the meeting.