New govt begins journey with Sheikh Hasina as PM for 5th time
Her council of ministers include 25 ministers and 11 state ministers. The 36 ministers also took oath as members of the new cabinet on Thursday.
Swearing in as the prime minister for the fourth term in a row on Thursday, Sheikh Hasina brought a number of new faces in some key ministries, retained some with the previous portfolio and reassigned a few with new responsibility in a cabinet to propel her new government's economic goals for the next five years.
The 36 ministers also took oath as members of the new cabinet on Thursday. Her council of ministers include 25 ministers and 11 state ministers.
President Mohammed Shahabuddin administered the oath to the ministers held at Bangabhaban at 7pm. The ceremony was watched by foreign diplomats, high civil and military officials and the elite of the city.
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The oath-taking took place a day after the Awami League Parliamentary Party unanimously elected Sheikh Hasina as its leader, paving the way for her to become the prime minister for a fifth term, a record in Bangladesh history.
Sheikh Hasina brought back career diplomat Abul Hasan Mahmud Ali after a long gap to entrust him with the most crucial portfolio – finance, and Saber Hossain Chowdhury with the environment ministry, attaching her government's growing priority on climate diplomacy.
For foreign portfolio, which is now more important than ever given the strained relationship with the Global North – Bangladesh's key export markets – she has chosen Hasan Mahmud, who just ended his term as information minister.
Nasrul Hamid remains as state minister for energy, another key area of concern due to growing import cost and ballooning subsidy burden. Agriculture, which helped the country overcome major shocks with good harvests, sees a new minister.
With taking oath on Thursday, ministers of the new cabinet will be taking the responsibility of implementing the Awami League's election manifesto, building on the successes and correcting the failures during the last 15 years.
The battle will be more intense in economic and diplomatic fronts than others, given the hardships in public life and businesses mainly due to inflation and dollar shortage, as well as strained relations with the West centering the 7 January election.
Securing supply of oil and gas and enabling more exports will not be easy tests too for those taking the charges.
When Awami League took office in 2009, the global economy was under extreme stress and Bangladesh's economy was more or less unharmed because of its less integration to global financial markets. In 2024, when the party has started its fourth straight term, the world is more volatile and Bangladesh's is more linked to global markets.
The new finance minister is shouldering the difficult task of putting the economy back on high growth track, when dollar shortage persists, inflation remains 9.6%, banks' liquidity crisis deepens, investment slows, revenue falls and external repayment mounts.
Abul Hasan Mahmud Ali, a career diplomat and a former foreign minister, will have to propel the economy towards the high growth trajectory, fixing banks, rebuilding reserves and taming inflation.
The Awami League's manifesto summarises the economic wish list for him.
"We will continue to implementing robust measures to prevent under and over invoicing, duty evasion, money laundering abroad, transaction through hundi, artificial crises created through hoarding and syndicates, and excessive profit in import-export," it says, reflecting concerns of economists and market analysts about how hundi eats into remittance dollars, how duty evasion bleeds revenue dry and how trade-related money laundering makes wide difference in real export earnings.
The world is sharply divided in responses to the parliamentary elections—with China, India, Japan, Russia congratulating and USA, EU, UK, Canada questioning the elections.
Mending the relations will be a tough test for the new foreign minister, Hasan Mahmud, who just completed his term as information minister, as the new government's foreign policy is supposed to put more emphasis on trade diplomacy to retain trade preferences and explore new markets.
Tough battle for FinMin
In 15 years, Bangladesh has emerged as a dynamic and rapidly growing economic power in the world, with revolutionary changes in agriculture, industry and service sectors put Bangladesh at 33rd position in the world in terms of national income, the party's 2024 election manifesto claims.
Unprecedented improvements in energy, electricity and communication systems serve as a driving force behind the nation's economy, says the manifesto, dubbed "Smart Bangladesh: Where development shines accelerating employment," projecting 8.1% GDP growth in 2027-28 which was 6% in FY23.
It pledges to eradicate bribery and corruption at all levels, prosecute debt-tax evaders and corrupt individuals, leading to confiscation of their illicit money and assets.
"We will persist in controlling borrowing opportunities by consistently rescheduling defaulted loans," it says.
To fix those, the new finance minister will have to utilise, as stated in the election pledges, legal and institutional frameworks to counter money laundering and bring criminals to trial.
Enforcement of law to recover default loans, maintaining sufficient reserves of foreign currency, striking a balance between Real Effective Exchange Rate (REER) and nominal exchange rate (NER), reforms in banks and financial sectors were among the issues which are always easier-said-than-done for a finance minister.
Implementing the election pledges like increasing savings, investment and revenues, ensuring transparency in project spending and government procurements, simplifying procedures for foreign direct investment will also find the finance minister struggling.
New Finance Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali had his master's in economics at Dhaka University, where he taught for two years before joining foreign service in1966.
He retired from active service in 2001 and joined the Awami League. He was appointed as the Minister for Disaster Management and Relief in 2012 and foreign minister in 2014.
Balancing East and West
The Awami League's manifesto states, Bangladesh is committed to strengthen and diversify development cooperation with the US, UK, EU, Japan, Canada and other developed countries.
It points to the government's growing reliance on India, China and Russia mainly for trade, energy and development financing.
It pledges to continue to cooperate with India in various areas including trade, transit, security, energy partnership and equitable water sharing.
It will also seek to cooperate with India-Nepal-Bhutan for hydropower generation and joint management of common river basins.
"Bangladesh is willing to strengthen relations with China in terms of development financing. Initially, the government will work to build a strong friendship with Russia to expand the energy sector," the party says in its election pledges, also willing to strengthen relations with ASEAN countries.
Foreign policy also looks into trade diplomacy prominently as during this term of the Awami League government, Bangladesh is expected to graduate from the least developed country status in 2026.
It pledges to engage in negotiations with EU, UK, others to secure a grace period for quota benefits even post-graduation to middle-income status, and strengthen existing trade-related agreements with India, Japan, China, Singapore, South Korea, Indonesia, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
Feasibility studies will be conducted South American common market Mercosur, Russia, East European markets, it says.
Election pledges have it that the government will implement measures for product diversification and identify new markets to reach exports to $150 billion by 2030 from $55.6 billion in 2022-23.
It also pledges export policy support for agricultural items, sea foods, halal products and services, light engineering items, pharma and IT services.
Climate change in spotlight
By inducting Saber Hossain Chowdhury into her cabinet giving him the job of the environment forest and climate change ministry, PM Hasina signals her new government is going to make climate change a core issue of her diplomacy.
Saber is expected to excel well. He is a known face globally for his engagement in the global efforts on climate change and parliamentary affairs. He already left his strong footprint in global parliamentary diplomacy by winning the presidency of Inter Parliamentary Union, an organisation of national parliaments which works closely with UN partners on climate change, especially the United Nations Climate Change Conference held in the framework of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Being the chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on environment, he monitored the country's climate change risks and administrative problems and was closely associated with global movement and climate priorities, which will help him meet Bangladesh needs to make climate change a core issue of diplomacy.
A graduate of University of London, Saber Hossain Chowdhury holds a joint honours degree in economics and politics. He became honorary president of Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in 2014 as the first Bangladeshi in this position.
Saber Chowdhury served as deputy minister of shipping and deputy minister for LGRD between 1999 and 2001.
Energy remains key concern
Amid worries about dollar shortage impeding gas import and unpaid subsidy affecting electricity producers, Nasrul Hamid is continuing with his previous task to dispel worries of industries about gas and electricity supplies.
Ensuring availability of quality energy for industries, he has to work on pledges of manifesto, such as retirement of rental and inefficient power plants in phases, import of hydropower from Nepal and Bhutan, decision on coal exploration, exploration of new gas fields and enhancement of fuel oil refinery capacity--- all pending issues for years.
Other ministers in the cabinet
The 37-member council of ministers including prime minister, government got portfolios yesterday, half an hour after they took oath at Bangabhaban.
The Cabinet Division issued a gazette notification to this end, reports BSS.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina keeps to herself the Cabinet Division, Defence Ministry, Armed Forces Division, Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, Cultural Affairs Ministry and Labour and Employment Ministry.
AKM Mozammel Haque has been given the charge of Liberation War Affairs Ministry, Obaidul Quader of Road Transport And Bridges, Anisul Huq of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Nurul Majid Mahmud Humayun of Industries, Asaduzzaman Khan of Home Affairs, Md Tazul Islam of LGRD and Cooperatives, Muhammad Faruk Khan of Civil Aviation and Tourism, Dr Dipu Moni of Social Welfare, Sadhan Chandra Majumder of Food, Abdus Salam of Planning, Md Faridul Haque Khan of Religious Affairs, RAM Obaidul Muktadir Chowdhury of Housing and Public Works, Narayan Chandra Chanda of Land, Jahangir Kabir Nanak of Textiles and Jute, Md Abdur Rahman of Fisheries and Livestock, Md Abdus Shahid of Agriculture, Architect Yeafesh Osman (technocrat) of Science and Technology, Dr. Samanta Lal Sen (technocrat) of Health and Family Welfare, Md Zillul Hakim of Railways, Farhad Hossain of Public Administration, Nazmul Hasan of Youth and Sports, Forests and Climate Change, and Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury of Education Ministry.
Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury became state minister for Shipping, Zunaid Ahmed Palak for Posts, Telecommunications and ICT, Zaheed Farooque for Water resources, Simeen Hussain (Rimi) for Women and Children Affairs, Kujendra Lal Tripura for CHT Affairs, Md Mohibbur Rahman for Disaster management and Relief, Mohammad Ali Arafat for Information and Broadcasting, Shafiqur Rahman Chowdhury for Expatriates welfare and Overseas Employment, Rumana Ali for Primary and Mass education and Ahsanul Islam (Titu) for Commerce Ministry.
