Albania wants to learn from Bangladesh’s development approach

Bangladesh’s development has been an issue to observe for all other similar countries and Albania could learn a great deal from the process Bangladesh adopted to turn itself into a manufacturing export-oriented economy, says Deputy Foreign Minister of Albania Etjen Xhafaj. He made the remarks during a meeting with Bangladesh’s State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam held at the Albanian Foreign Ministry in Tirana on Saturday. This was an official bilateral meeting held after long time between Bangladesh and Albania, said the Foreign Ministry in Dhaka on Sunday. At the outset, the state minister briefed the Albanian deputy minister of the recent developments in Bangladesh in political, social and infrastructural sectors under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. He mentioned that the present government was pledge-bound to the people to materialize the dream of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. As a result, Shahriar said, Bangladesh was being promoted from the status of LDC to a middle-income country very soon. He also briefed Xhafaj about the ongoing development efforts and activities undertaken by the present government. The Albanian deputy foreign minister thanked the leadership of Bangladesh for recognizing Kosovo, which would help stabilize the situation in Balkan and brought peace for the people of the region. He thanked Bangladesh for providing shelter and other facilities to the Rohingyas from Myanmar and mentioned their own experience with half a million refugees from Kosovo in 1999 and the great hardship it brought to everybody and reiterated their support to Bangladesh in this regard. Both ministers agreed to conclude few bilateral instruments to further strengthen their current relations and Shahriar reminded Xhafaj of the invitation for the OIC CFM (Council of Foreign Ministers) to be held in May and sought the participation of a high level delegation from Albania. They also agreed to work together in various international forums for the mutual benefit of the both countries.

Kosovo thanks Bangladesh for recognition

As the part of the official visit to Kosovo and Albania, the state minister also met Foreign Minister of Kosovo Behgjet Pacolli, who expressed the sincere gratitude of his government to the Bangladesh government for recognizing Kosovo and providing support in different international forums. Both of them expressed deep satisfaction for the establishment of formal diplomatic relations on February 16 in New York signed by the permanent representative of Bangladesh and the representative of Kosovo. Both ministers agreed to work closely in future and emphasized the need to exchange more visits and conclusion of official instruments to strengthen the bilateral relations. Cooperation between the private sectors could be the beginning to start with and this could be further replicated in other bilateral sectors, both sides said. Shahriar Alam assured all supports in future for Kosovo. The state minister is scheduled to meet the president and the speaker of the State Assembly of Kosovo during the visit.