Staff CorrespondentDhaka – An Austrian diplomat has assured the western European nation’s support to Bangladesh’s sweeping reforms agenda took up by the interim administration headed by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus.
Katharina Wieser, the non-resident ambassador of Austria to Bangladesh, made the remarks at a meeting with Yunus in Dhaka on Monday, according to his press wing statement.
Wieser, who is based in New Delhi, also informed that a few Austrian companies, including one that wanted to set up a technical school on the outskirts of Dhaka, are eager to invest in Bangladesh.
But proposed investment needed some cooperation from Bangladesh authorities to secure soft loans from Austrian financial institutions, she said.
Yunus instantly asked officials to look into the matter with the authorities concerned.
The Chief Adviser, during the meeting, said the country would decide on an election date once reforms, undertaken after his assumption in power in August following the ouster of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, are implemented and the voter list is prepared.
The chief adviser’s office said Bangladesh’s efforts to counterterrorism, cross-border issues, human trafficking, legal migration, climate change and the country’s law and order situation were also featured in the meeting.
Austria has a long-term policy to promote legal migration, and Bangladeshis are the sixth largest migrant community in the rich Western European nation, the ambassador said.
In response, Yunus said Austria should take more Bangladeshis through the legal channels. It will cut human trafficking from Bangladesh, he added.
Lamiya Morshed, senior secretary and the principal coordinator of SDG affairs, and Tasbirul Islam, honorary consul of Austria, were present during the meeting, according to a press statement by the press wing at the Chief Adviser’s Office.
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