Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is set to visit the Maldives on a two-day official tour from December 22 to 23 in a bid to boost bilateral relations with the South Asian country.
The foreign minister sources confirmed the matter on Sunday (December 19).
President of the Maldives Ibrahim Mohamed Solih invited the Bangladesh Prime Minister during his visit to Dhaka on the occasion of Bangladesh’s golden jubilee of independence.
Foreign Minister Dr A K Abdul Momen will addressing a press conference to explain about the Prime Minister’s Maldives tour plan.
“The Prime Minister will visit the Maldives on December 22-23. A bilateral trade deal is expected to be signed between the two countries during her visit,” said cabinet secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam at a press briefing earlier.
The cabinet meeting endorsed a draft agreement to be signed between Bangladesh and the Maldives to avoid double-taxation and to prevent tax evasion, he said.
The move is aimed at promoting trade activities between the two nations, he added.
Some1 lakh migrants from Bangladesh lives in the island country, located in the Indian ocean, for their livelihoods and half of them have turned ‘irregular’, facing hardships as the Maldivian authorities in September, 2019 slapped a moratorium on recruitment of unskilled manpower from Bangladesh and stopped renewal of work permit visas for Bangladeshi workers, according to officials and affected migrant workers.
Many could not even send their hard-earned money to their families back in Bangladesh through legal channels as their work permit visas were not renewed on expiry, rendering them ‘irregular’ all of a sudden.
