PM SET FOR TOUR OF JAPAN, KSA, FINLAND Dhaka, Tokyo to sign $2.5bn ODA

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will leave Dhaka tomorrow (Tuesday) on a 12-day tri-nation tour of Japan, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Finland. 
During the visits, she will seek support from Japan, Organisation of Islamic Conference member-countries and Finland in resolving the Rohingya crisis, officials said. 
In Tokyo, she will hold bilateral talks with her Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe on Wednesday. Japan will sign a deal, after the talks, with Bangladesh extending to it $2.5 billion overseas development assistance for implementing five projects, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said on Sunday. 
The Japanese ODA will be used for Matarbari port development, Dhaka mass rapid transit development, energy efficiency and conservation promotion, Matarbari ultra super critical coal-fired power plant and foreign direct investment promotion.
Some survivors of the Holey Artisan attack are expected to call on the Bangladesh prime minister in Tokyo. 
Hasina will attend a breakfast meeting with the heads of several Japanese companies. 
Shinzo Abe will host a dinner in honour of the Bangladesh prime minister at his residence. 
She will deliver a speech at the 25th international conference on Future Asia in Tokyo on the same day. 
JICA president Shinichi Kitaoka will call on her at her place of residence. 
Sheikh Hasina will attend the Nikkei Conference, which will also be attended by Shinzo Abe and Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohammad. 
On Friday (May 31), she will leave Japan for the KSA to attend the 14th session of the OIC’s Islamic Summit in Makkah. Incidents involving the Muslim community across the world are likely to be discussed in the summit of heads of the government of the OIC member-countries. 
Hasina will perform Umrah during the visit. She will also visit Madina to offer prayers at the Masjid-e-Nabawi, established by Prophet Muhammad. 
On June 3, she will leave Jeddah for Helsinki on an official bilateral visit at the invitation of Finnish president Sauli Niinistö. She will call on the Finnish president at his official residence on June 4. 
Foreign Minister Momen said that signing of any deal during her visit to Finland was ‘unlikely’. 
On June 7, Hasina will leave Helsinki for Dhaka. She will make a stopover in New Delhi for about 12 hours on June 8 on her way back to Dhaka. 
She is expected to return home in the evening of June 8.
State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam and foreign secretary M Shahidul Haque were present at the press conference.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net