Honourable Prime Minister (HPM) Sheikh Hasina left Bangladesh today for an official tour to the United Kingdom and the United States to join the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II and the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). The flight is scheduled to reach London Stansted International Airport at 16:45 hours where she will be received by High Commissioner of Bangladesh to the United Kingdom Saida Muna Tasneem. On the second day, on September 16, Secretary General of Commonwealth Patricia Scotland will pay a courtesy call on her at place of residence. Later, Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, UK, Minister for South Asia, North Africa, the United Nations and the Commonwealth at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) will also pay a courtesy call on her at place of residence.

Describing her recent India visit successful, HPM Sheik Hasina has reiterated that this visit has further added a fresh impetus in the bilateral ties between the countries, adding that efforts are underway to ensure her country gets fuel at a cheaper rate from her neighboure. The premier was speaking at a press conference held on her September 5-8 visit to India at her official residence Ganabhaban. Replying to a question on what Bangladesh has got from the visit, the prime minister said it all depends on how one looks at it. “Bangladesh is going to get oil from India. The oil will be transported from Assam’s Numaligarh to our depot in the north through a pipeline which will also be built by India. Once the supply of oil starts, the economic activities of northern Bangladesh and the wellbeing of the people living there will get a boost,” she added.

The work on Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Tunnel, the country's first tunnel under construction beneath the Karnaphuli river, is almost complete and the infrastructure is expected to be inaugurated next month. As many as 16,760 vehicles per day and 7 million vehicles per year will be able to move once the tunnel is opened. The tunnel tube has a length of 2.45 km and an inner radius of 10.80 m. The tunnel has four lanes in two tubes. A total stretch of 5.35 km approach road and 727 meter over bridge at the west and east ends of the tunnel has been set up already.

US Ambassador to Bangladesh Peter Haas lauded Bangladesh's Covid-19 response including the vaccination drive, terming it as "remarkable". The US wants to partner with Bangladesh in the 'Global Covid Action Plan' to deal with the pandemic, the envoy said on Tuesday as he paid a courtesy call on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her official residence Ganabhaban. A minister-level special session of US-Bangladesh along with other stakeholders would be held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Haas said. "Bangladesh is clearly ahead of the United States (US) in vaccination programmes under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. This is really amazing and the efficiency is remarkable," he added.

A directive has been issued to take initiative to keep the Ministry of Land on the same page in the overall plan of the government to transform from Digital to Smart Bangladesh. A plan to make the e-Mutation system smart has been taken up experimentally in the programme of setting up digital and smart land services. As part of this, a question-based guided smart e-Mutation form has been designed. Besides, a provision has been made to upload the applicable data and files stored on the government server during the online registration application. As a result, the applicants can easily and quickly fill out the e-Mutation form.

Bangladesh exported a locally built 6100-tonne load capacity high-speed multipurpose container ship to the UK. This is the largest container ship built in the country that has been exported. That the ship is 364 feet long, 54 feet wide and 27 feet high with the ship's engine capacity is 4130 horsepower, speed is 12.5 nautical miles and capacity is 6100 tonnes. The shipbuilding industry contributes Tk 150 billion annually to Bangladesh through ship export, ship management, supply of captains and marine engineers, sea transportation by domestic shipping lines, coastal and inland cargo, and passenger transportation.

The country's overseas employments in the eight months of the current year witnessed a robust growth following demands of manpower from different job-destination countries. Bangladesh sent 783925 workers abroad in the January-August period of 2022, as against 275791 in the matching period of 2021, reflecting more than 184 % growth, official data showed. Besides, the employments has increased over 23% in August alone than that of previous month. It showed 92908 workers found jobs in August and 75,499 in July. Manpower recruiters hoped that more workers would go abroad in coming months as Malaysia started hiring workers from Bangladesh in the last month.

From now on, like Hong Kong and Singapore, traders can buy goods or services from another country and export them to third countries. Foreign Exchange Policy Department of Bangladesh Bank issued a circular in this regard and sent it to the authorized dealers for immediate execution. The central bank circular stated, “In accordance with export policy in force, a trade for which goods or services procured from a country, are shipped or delivered directly to a third country is defined as ‘merchandising trade’. To facilitate transactional services by ADs to their ‘merchandising, trade’ customers, it has been decided to formulate a set of operational guidelines.” Due to the new policy, export trade will expand. Now traders from countries like Hong Kong, and Singapore can do business. It will earn a lot of foreign currency.

The Smart Bangladesh Task Force was formed under the leadership of HPM Sheikh Hasina in the Smart Bangladesh-2041 vision to establish Bangladesh as a knowledge-based economy and an innovative nation to implement Smart Bangladesh-2041.It is being implemented by the ICT Division. Building inclusive digital societies and falling behind undertake self-employment-based training programs under the Digital Inclusion for Vulnerable Exceptions initiative to bring marginalized communities into the mainstream of development. Implementation is the responsibility of the ICT Division. To ensure the online activities of the students, to continue the laptop support program of the students under 'One Student, One Laptop, One Dream.