DHAKA, Aug 29, 2017 (BSS) – US Acting Assistant Secretary of State Alice Wells today expected Bangladesh to be the pioneering role model for development and draw enhanced US investments in near future as she called on prime minister’s energy adviser Dr. Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury.
“She praised Bangladesh as a moderate Muslim country and expected us to be the pioneering role model in the field of development,” an official familiar with her meeting with the premier’s adviser said.
The official said Wells also hoped expanded bilateral ties with increased US investment in Bangladesh in near future while “President Donald Trump is willing to strengthen relations with countries in the Indian Ocean rim”.
Wells, who is in charge of South and Central Asian Affairs in the state department, called on the adviser at the PMO while she arrived Dhaka for the first time earlier today as part of visit to the region.
The junior US minister, the official said, particularly appreciated Bangladesh’s achievement in energy sector saying this progress prompted the US companies like the General Electric’s to take interest for investing in power sector.
Chowdhury, on the other hand, sought Wells’s cooperation so the US Accelerate Energy could complete in time the task of installing floating station to supply LNG gas inside the country from the offshore.
The adviser told the US junior minister that under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s stewardship, Bangladesh continued to demonstrate its success in all development indexes while in energy sector alone it tripled its power generation capacity since she assumed office in 2009.
“Eighty percent of the population now came under electricity coverage while the figure was 40 percent in 2009,” the official quoted Chowdhury as telling Wells.