Agriculture Minister and Awami League presidium member Dr Abdur Razzaque commented that the Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD) is working with the aim of bringing a political party to power. He said CPD conducts many polls with political goals. They want to bring a political party to power and they belong to that party. Even before this, CPD had vigorously campaigned against Dr Md Yunus. Then the people rejected them.
The minister said these things during an exchange of views with reporters at a meeting regarding the progress of increasing the export of agricultural products in the conference room of the Ministry of Agriculture at the secretariat on Monday afternoon.
Questioning the results of CPD's recent survey, 'corruption is a major obstacle to business in the country', the minister said that people need to be informed about their survey method. In what manner, how objectively they survey is questionable. And CPD is not a pure either, nor is it neutral.
The Minister said that due to the impact of Corona and Russia-Ukraine war, the development of countries like USA, Japan, India has also been hampered and there has been negative growth. How does CPD see Bangladesh's positive growth despite this situation? What is the magic of this achievement? International organizations including the World Bank and IMF say that the growth in the country is now around 6 percent. Does CPD know how we subsidized farmers by buying potassium fertilizer at 250 dollar per ton due to price hike?
Pointing out that there is more or less corruption all over the world including developed countries, the minister said that there are many examples of corruption in the United States and Germany. There is some corruption in developing countries like Bangladesh. Khaleda Zia is in jail in a corruption case. It cannot be said that corruption has been eradicated from the country.
Regarding the export of agricultural products and potatoes, the minister said that we are implementing two roadmaps to increase the export of agricultural products and potatoes. Separate scanners for agricultural products have already been set up at the airport, and arrangements have been made for direct cargo ships to the Middle East. Implementation of good agricultural practices and implementation of modern packing house is going on. However, there are still some problems, including banking problems, not getting the 20 percent incentive given to the export of agricultural products properly; Work is going on to eliminate them.
The meeting reviewed the implementation progress of the roadmap for increasing the export of agricultural products and the roadmap for increasing the export of potatoes. Agriculture Secretary Wahida Akhtar presided. It was attended by senior officials of the Ministry of Agriculture, heads of organizations, representatives of other related ministries, exporters and business representatives.