Advisers Council approves visa-exemption deal with Gambia

Govt seal

Dhaka, Oct 31 – The Council of Advisers on Thursday approved a draft agreement between Bangladesh and Gambia on visa exemption for diplomatic and official passport-holders.

The meeting was chaired by Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus here in the capital.  

The Security Services Division placed the draft of ‘Agreement between the Government of the Republic of the Gambia and the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh on Exemption from Visa Requirement for Holders of Diplomatic and Official Passports’ at the meeting.

As per the proposed instrument, the diplomatic and official passport holders of the two countries enjoy visa exemption facility for upto 90-days.

Bangladesh has visa exemption agreements with 29 countries –-21 countries in Asia, 4 in Europe, 1 in Africa and 3 in America.

Besides, the council approved the draft of ‘Agreement on Maritime Transport Cooperation’, which was designed by the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC).

The proposed agreement was signed at the BIMSTEC summit in presence of the heads of the governments of the member countries.

The council cleared the draft National Parliament Secretariat (Interim Special Provision) Ordinance, 2024 in a bid to continue the administrative and financial tasks by addressing different problems that appear in absence of the Speaker.

However, the national project evaluation policy 2024 was not approved in the meeting of the council, which was placed by the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division.

Deputy Press Secretaries Aburba Jahangir and Mohammad Abul Kalam Azad Majumder also spoke at the briefing. - UNB