Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Monday said the country’s present development and economy actually stand on the foundation created by Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
“Bangabandhu left no stone unturned to set the country on a strong footing from a devastating state caused by the war. He started off from the debris of war,” he said.
Kamal was addressing a discussion arranged by Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority (IDRA), marking Bangabandhu’s 46th anniversary of martyrdom. “The amount and degree of loss in war-ravaged Bangladesh was indescribable. The Pakistanis left Bangladesh in a horrible state through execution of its scorched-earth policy,” he said.
A Bangladesh Bank estimate suggests that only Tk 40 was left in the hands of people that time, while there was no foreign currency reserve in the central bank and Bangladesh Secretariat started its journey with only some 10,000 documents.
Immediately after the independence, when Bangabandhu started talking through telephone, Dhaka was connected to only three districts.
In line with a Pakistani military directive, collaborators -- Al Badr members -- burnt down all the money of the state-owned banks on December 16, 1971, Kamal said while depicting the grim picture of that time.
The whole nation is still haunted by the assassination of Bangabandhu and it will continue for a long time, he said.
Not only that, he had contributed to even the insurance sector from the very outset, he noted.
The finance secretary called for advancing the insurance sector further by transforming the grief to strength.
Presided over by IDRA Chairman Dr Mosharraf Hossain, Bangladesh Insurance Association (BIA) President Sheikh Kabir Hossain also attended the virtual event as a special guest.
