Govt to hold dialogues with political parties on Saturday

As part of the ongoing consultations with stakeholders, Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus will hold dialogue with another group of political parties on Saturday.

Fifteen political parties, including Gono Forum, Liberal Democrats Party (LDP), and Bangladesh Jatiya Party (Andaleeve), are among those which will join the dialogue.

Chief Adviser's Deputy Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad Majumder shared the updates with reporters at a media briefing at the Foreign Service Academy in Dhaka on Tuesday.

CA's Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam and two assistant press secretaries Nayem Ali and Shuchismita Tithi were present.

Responding to a question on the Jatiya Party (Ershad-GM Quader), Azad said the dialogue is an ongoing process and any further decision will be communicated accordingly.

When his attention was drawn to the reported “minus-two” formula, he said this is not an issue of the government and this was never discussed.

"Our government does not know what is minus-two," Azad said, encouraging the reporters to talk to that particular political party for any further information.

He said the government is seriously working to ease people's suffering due to the price hike of essential commodities and necessary steps are being taken to address the situation.

Citing examples he said, the import duty on eggs was slashed to 13% from 33%. At the same time, the import duty on edible oil is reduced by 5%, he added.

Responding to a question, Azad said the government is determined to stop any kind of extortion to enable the businesses to run their operations without any hassle.

He also mentioned that the government is working to dismantle the market syndicate so that market manipulation does not exist.

This is going to be the second such dialogue in the second spell which started on 5 October with the participation of the BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami, CPB, and some other parties.

The key purpose of the dialogue is to inform the political parties about progress over the reform work and seek their suggestions.