Finance Minister AMA Muhith on Wednesday said that the diaspora communities have their voting rights and the government in the next election might set up casting centres in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, UK and USA.

The minister came up with the remarks in an international seminar on ‘NRB Engagement in National Development: Strategies and Way Forward’ at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC), jointly organised by Economic Relations Division (ERD), Ministry of Finance and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), reports the UNB.

He said, ‘In a recent visit to Santiago, I found a vast majority of diaspora community. We will be taking the points from this event about NRBs to address in the next budget.’

Muhith said, ‘We take interest in the expatriates because they are contributing to the economy by investing and sending remittances. The concentration of the expatriates is now in a number of countries. Dramatic changes have been there in large concentration in Saudi Arabia and Malaysia, earlier much concentration was there in the UK.’

‘We can now take a decision for arranging annual conference for the NRBs for better engagement. I take into account about providing more incentives for the NRBs. We have some mechanism in the Ministry of Finance for providing export incentives. Although the incentives are given through an annual event, we might bring in biennial events,’ he added

AMA Muhith, Finance Minister was present at the inaugural session as the Chief Guest, while Dr. Nomita Halder ndc, Secretary, Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment and Sudipto Mukherjee, Country Director, UNDP Bangladesh were present as special guests.

The inauguration session was chaired by ERD Secretary Kazi Shofiqul Azam.