Foreign Minister Dr. Hasan Mahmud said that foreign dependence has been reduced a lot in the development budget. Now we turn down many foreign loan proposals if they are not suitable or desirable for our country. We have achieved that capability under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. However, considering various aspects of the country and global economy, some foreign loans have to be taken.
On Sunday (June 30) afternoon, he faced reporters after the unanimous passage of the Tk. 797,000 crore budget proposed by the National Assembly for the fiscal year 2024-25 with the slogan 'Smart Bangladesh's dream in the cycle of sustainable development'. The minister said this in response to a question about the extent of foreign dependence in the budget.
The foreign minister said that once during the BNP period, before the budget, the finance minister had to go to the Paris consortium with a begging bag. During their time, especially in the development budget, foreign dependence was more than 50 percent. Today it has come down to 15-20 percent. And we have turned back, and turn back, many loan proposals, starting with the World Bank.
Dr. Hasan Mahmud said that some foreign loans have to be taken for the sake of overall and global economy. For example, we are partners of World Bank, Asian Development Bank. There is provision for us. If you don't take it, it lapses, so you have to take it on a case-by-case basis.
Terming the criticism of the budget as traditional, the foreign minister said that every time after the budget is proposed and passed, a group says that the budget is ambitious and not implementable. But in the last 15 years, our budget implementation rate is 92 to 96 percent. The country has progressed, the per capita income of the people has increased, poverty has come down from 41 to 18.5 percent and extreme poverty from 25.5 to just 5 percent, the average GDP has surpassed that of India and long ago surpassed that of Pakistan. Most importantly, our development progress is being appreciated globally today.
Meanwhile, the foreign minister is leaving for Riyadh early Monday morning to join the 'political consultation' at the foreign minister level with Saudi Arabia. Asked about this, he said, Saudi Arabia is our big development partner. About 30 lakh Bangladeshis live there and send remittances to the country. We have Saudi cooperation on various issues including green energy, solar power and port management. We will tell them to invest in industry.
Besides, since the Saudis keep money in banks of different countries, we can offer them to keep money in the offshore accounts of our country's banks, the foreign minister said, noting that they will get profit as per rules and they can do transactions in their currency from that account. We would like to highlight that we have opened the window of offshore account facility for foreign individuals, institutions, and expatriate Bangladeshis.