Donors keen on insignificant projects: Matia
Foreign donors are interested in the projects that matter little for the country's sake rather than supporting initiatives the country really needs to take, Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury said yesterday.
"You will find projects that seek to find the number of stray dogs in the country, and there are foreign aid for that," she said.
"But you would not find any foreign aid for projects that aim to give the country the ability to learn the space technology and to use them".
"The government of Bangladesh needs to pay for these initiatives," she added.
The minister was addressing the opening ceremony of the national seminar on "Space technology application for monitoring earth resources, disasters, and climate change impacts for ensuring human security and sustainable development".
Bangladesh Space Research And Remote Sensing Organisations (Sparrso) organised the two-day seminar at its conference room in the city.
Speakers at the seminar stressed the need for more funds for space and meteorological research activities, saying better researches and technologies would allow the country to get early and accurate predictions of natural disasters including cyclones and hurricanes.
State Minister for Environment and Forests Dr Hasan Mahmud said the country has many successes with regard to combating natural disasters through early predictions.
Dr Hasan said the casualty from the recent cyclone, which he did not specify, was of around 300 people while the same kind of disaster in Myanmar caused a casualty of around 74,000.
Sparrso Chairman Muzibur Rahman Howlader chaired the programme with the presence of top government officials and reputed scientists of the country.
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