France, Bangladesh to move further toward economic diplomacy, prosperity: Palak

France and Bangladesh have come a long way in economic diplomacy and are moving further toward more prosperity, State Minister for Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak said today (4 February).

Speaking to reporters after a meeting with Stephane Vesval, vice president of the Airbus Defence and Space, the minister said, "There is already an agreement of a Letter of Intent (LOI) with Bangladesh Satellite Company Limited (BSCL) and France's Airbus Defense and Space for the Bangabandhu Satellite-2, intended for earth observation, to develop the skills of the country's students, researchers and startups in the space industry and launch the next satellite."

Palak said there is a need for the country's own earth observation satellites for national defence security, along with protection of agri-fisheries, climate change and blue economy. 

"Everything, including the ground station, data receiving centre, processing, and analytics will be on the soil of Bangladesh. For this purpose, France and Bangladesh will come together to launch the 'made in Bangladesh' satellite," he said.

"The satellite construction will be done with the joint cooperation of public-private and academia," he added.

Also present in the meeting, French Ambassador to Bangladesh Marie Masdupuy said the French government is interested in cooperating with Bangladesh in various fields, especially telecommunication and information technology.

During the meeting, both parties discussed various issues related to the mutual interests of the two countries.