AMN/ WEB DESK
US Ambassador to Bangladesh Peter Haas has said that the successes of Bangladesh are real and the challenges it faces are also real. Speaking in Dhaka on Tuesday, Ambassador Haas praised Bangladesh for its remarkable economic journey from 1972 till date with its GDP growing from USD 94 to approximately USD 2000 now. He pointed out that Bangladesh has been successful in cutting down the number of people below the poverty line to half, graduating from Least Developed Country status and steadily progressing towards becoming a middle-income country.
Enumerating the challenges before Bangladesh, Peter Haas pointed out its extreme vulnerability to the effects of climate change leading to rising temperature, the threat of cyclones, and floods among several other natural and health calamities.
Ambassador Haas also raised concerns in the US about press freedom in Bangladesh, especially the Digital Security Act and drafted laws and regulations that inhibit press freedom in the country. Flagging the sanctions imposed by the US against Bangladesh’s elite law enforcement agency Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), Peter Haas said that US is concerned about human rights abuses including extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances in the country. He also talked about the insufficient labour rights and poor working conditions in the country which has deprived Bangladesh from benefiting from the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) since 2013 and missing out on the US Development Finance Corporation funding.
Underlining the cooperation between the two countries, Peter Haas said that the US continues to invest around USD 200 million each year in development programmes in Bangladesh. It has donated USD 140 million in Covid assistance apart from 64 million doses of the Covid 19 vaccine to Bangladesh. The US also has deep and multi-faceted security relations with Bangladesh as reflected in joint military exercises, training to Bangladesh law enforcement and military personnel and holding of the bilateral security dialogue.
Speaking of the future of US-Bangladesh relations, Peter Haas said in the past 50 years Bangladesh has had no better friend than the US and in the next 50 years too it will have no better friend than the US. He said the two countries are already moving away from a relationship based on assistance to one that emphasises mutually beneficial trade.