A multinational forum comprising Bangladesh, six other countries, and the European Union has been formed for ensuring civil aviation safety in Bangladesh.
Apart from Bangladesh, the members of the forum are United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, United Arab Emirates, Japan, and the European Union.
A meeting in this regard was held yesterday afternoon between the ambassadors and high officials of these countries and top officials of the ministries of Foreign Affairs, Home Affairs and Civil Aviation. “We had a fruitful meeting. All of us will work together to ensure proper security arrangement on the ground,” Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque told The Independent about the meeting held at the foreign ministry.
According to diplomatic sources, Bangladesh wants to elevate its civil aviation safety to the international standard.
Each of the countries in the forum has interest in Bangladesh with regard to civil aviation safety, said a foreign ministry official.
Secretaries to foreign, commerce and labour ministries and ambassadors and high commissioners of US, UK, Canada, Australia, UAE, Japan and the EU are the members of this forum.
Bangladesh can receive technical support and assistance related to advocacy and infrastructure from these countries, he said.
After the Rana Plaza disaster, a forum was formed comprising of secretaries to foreign, commerce and labour ministries and ambassadors of five countries to ensure better labour practices in the country. The aviation forum has been constituted in the same manner, according to the diplomatic sources.
Airports across the world are asked to strengthen airport security after a Russian plane was blown away by explosives in Egypt in October, last year.
Following that a team from UK submitted more than one evaluation reports after visiting Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport. Later, London imposed embargo on direct cargo transportation from Bangladesh. After that, Redline, a British company, was given the responsibility of upgrading the security of the airport.
Besides, a team from the US visited the airport at the beginning of this year. Separate teams from Canada and UAE also inspected the security system of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport.
There is another project currently being implemented by Japan for the development of the airport.