Tokyo is worried about the Safeguarding National Security Bill. On March 19, Hong Kong’s Legislative Council unanimously passed the Safeguarding National Security Bill proposed by the Hong Kong government, with the legislation taking effect on March 23. The bill complements the so-called National Security Law and gives the Chinese government even more control over Hong Kong society. It will likely further accelerate the sinicization of Hong Kong. The news sparked demonstrations in Tokyo, while the Japanese government expressed “grave concern” in a statement issued by the Foreign Press Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which took a noticeably different tone from that which it has hitherto used. In fact, Japan has put out several statements since the National Security Law was first enacted in 2020, issuing two in March of that year soon after the law came into force, followed by a statement on December 21, 2021 when changes were made to the electoral system under the National Security Law. Of course, Japan is not alone here; statements have also been issued by the G-7 and other countries. The Japanese Foreign Ministry has stayed partly in step with other developed countries, but it has also represented the sentiments of the Japanese business community, given the large Japanese corporate presence in Hong Kong and the substantial investments that Japan has made in Hong Kong, especially in the financial sector. In its first statement on March 11, 2020, the Japanese government went no further than expressing “regret,” but it then expressed “grave concern” later that month, an expression that it has used since. In last month’s statement, Tokyo used the term “grave concern” twice, the first time it has done that. Moreover, it claimed that the National Security Law and the changes to the Hong Kong Basic Law on the electoral system “further undermine the confidence in the ‘One Country, Two Systems’ framework.” This most recent statement also calls on China “to ensure that activities and rights of Japanese nationals and companies in Hong Kong, with which Japan maintains close economic ties, continue to be respected and protected in the same manner as before, and that the rights and freedoms of the people in Hong Kong are respected.” The language just before this part, specifically “…call on China and Hong Kong authorities, in cooperation with relevant countries…” also contains wording that was quite unprecedented. Previous statements have used the expression “call on China, in cooperation with relevant countries,” without any mention of “Hong Kong authorities.” Japan’s Foreign Ministry seems to be considering the possibility of somehow influencing the Hong Kong authorities through the Consulate-General of Japan in Hong Kong or other means. Unsurprisingly, the Chinese government was quick to hit back. Responding to a reporter’s question, a spokesperson for China’s embassy in Tokyo said, “The Japanese side has released so-called talks related to Hong Kong [statements by the Press Secretary], pointing fingers at China’s Hong Kong affairs, seriously interfering in China’s internal affairs, and violating the basic norms of international relations. China expresses strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to this.” According to the spokesperson, the new bill will have the effect of closing loopholes in national security, thereby achieving long-term stability in Hong Kong and making the “One Country, Two Systems” framework permanent. He added that there is strong consensus in various sectors of Hong Kong society on this, before concluding “Hong Kong is purely a matter of Chinese internal affairs, so any external criticism is unacceptable.” In short, China sees the statements by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs as interference in its internal affairs. Japan’s statement has clearly raised the temperature. Observers will doubtless be watching closely to see what comes next. Source: The Diplomat  

Trump and Duda discussed a range of issues, including Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Ahead of the November US presidential election, Trump is taking time to forge ties with foreign leaders. Former US President Donald Trump met with Polish President Andrzej Duda on Wednesday in New York, discussing NATO defense spending and other global issues, according to Trump's campaign. Trump: 'We're behind Poland all the way'    In town for his court appearances in a criminal trial, Trump hosted Duda at his Trump Tower property in Manhattan. Trump praised the Polish president, saying, "He's done a fantastic job and he's my friend." "We're behind Poland all the way," Trump added. Duda called the two-and-a-half hour meeting friendly and "in very nice atmosphere," emphasizing the strength of US-Poland relations. The European conservative, an ardent Trump admirer,  had once proposed naming a military base in Poland "Fort Trump." Trump, Duda discuss NATO spending, Ukraine Trump and Duda discussed a range of issues, including Duda's suggestion for NATO nations to raise their defense budgets to 3% of GDP. This aligns with Trump's previous demands for NATO members to boost their defense spending. "They also discussed the war between Russia and Ukraine, the conflict with Israel in the Middle East, and many other topics having to do with getting to world peace," the Trump campaign said in a statement. Duda, who has consistently praised Trump, is a strong supporter of Ukraine. He has urged Washington to increase its support to Kyiv amid continued Russian aggression. A $95 billion (€88.8 billion) foreign aid bill that would have provided new funding to Ukraine is held up in the US Congress by Trump allies. Trump has frequently expressed skepticism regarding more aid to Ukraine, thus influencing conservative lawmakers in their opposition to the bill. Ukraine sorely needs the US funding as it is running out of weaponry and ammunition against Russia's offensive. Trump meeting world leaders Ahead of November election against US President Joe Biden, Trump is taking time to forge ties with foreign leaders. The almost certain Republican nominee met with British Foreign Secretary David Cameron last week, at the former president's Florida Mar-a-Lago estate. Last month, Trump hosted Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. In contrast to his recent callers, Orban is a staunch supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin. In February, Trump met with Javier Milei, the right-wing populist president of Argentina, who had modelled his election campaign after Trump's, replete with the 'Make Argentina Great Again' slogan hats.  

The country is set to celebrate Pahela Baishakh, the first day of Bengali New Year 1431. The day will be celebrated through various arrangements upholding the rich cultural values. Preparations are underway at the Fine Arts of Dhaka University to welcome Baishakh. On Saturday (April 13) afternoon, it was seen that the artists are passing busy time at the last moment at the Fine Arts premises of Dhaka University (DU). On the first day of Bengali New Year , people from all walks of life usually wear traditional Bengali dresses. Men wear white pyjamas and panjabi where Women wear white sarees with red borders and adorn themselves with bangles and flowers. Through Pahela Baishakh the Bangalees bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new year.  To celebrate the day the programmes will begin in the capital with the musical soiree of Chhayanat at Ramna Batamul at dawn. The traditional Mangal Shobhajatra will be brought out from Dhaka University (DU) Fine Arts Faculty premises early in the morning. Various paintings have already been painted on the walls of the Faculty of Fine Arts of DU. The walls of the university are bing decorated with various pictures of nature. The graffiti of Flowers, fish, boats, tigers, peacocks and  have been placed by the students. Viewers turn around looking at the paintings of the artists. Apart from this, the work of masks, dolls and painting is going on inside the fine arts for the Mangal Shobhajatra.  

After eight years of tough negotiations with the European Union's 27 member states, the European Parliament has approved a fundamental reform of asylum policy in the bloc. The new migration pact comprises several intertwined laws and is primarily intended to reduce the number of new arrivals, speed up asylum procedures and establish centers for doing this at the European Union's external borders. According to the EU's statistics agency Eurostat, the number of asylum applications has risen steadily in recent years, reaching 1.14 million in 2023. Around 4 million refugees from Ukraine have been accommodated in the bloc since 2022. How will asylum procedures be implemented at the external borders? In the future, asylum-seekers and refugees will be clearly identified within seven days of arrival in the EU by land, sea or air. Their details will be stored in the European asylum fingerprint database Eurodac, which will be expanded with further biometric data. Migrants from countries with recognition rates below 20%, such as India, Pakistan or Morocco, could be detained at the border for up to 12 weeks. Holding centers are to be set up in Greece, Italy, Malta, Spain, Croatia and Cyprus, and shall be where authorities will decide whether to send applicants back to their country of origin without further inquiry. This is expected to affect only a small number of arrivals. Across the EU, these centers should be able to accommodate up to 30,000 people at any time. Migrants from countries with higher recognition rates will be able to pass through the regular asylum procedure. Currently, this process can take years and is set to be shortened. Those people whose applications have been rejected will be deported directly at the EU's external borders. Burden on first points of entry to be decreased The so-called New Pact on Migration and Asylum also states that countries where migrants first arrive will be able to relocate a certain number of asylum-seekers to other EU member states. For this, a system of "mandatory solidarity" will be put in place. If states such as Hungary refuse to accept people, they will have to pay compensation or send equipment and personnel to countries of first reception. The amount of €20,000 ($21,400) per person not admitted has been put forward, but this is nonbinding and member states will negotiate details on a case-by-case basis. If one country thinks it is bearing too much of the burden, it will be able to request more solidarity. In crisis cases, all 27 member states will decide together. Standardize conditions across bloc Currently, many asylum-seekers in Greece and Italy, for example, try to continue their journey to reach countries like Germany, Austria, France, the Netherlands and Belgium. This is the case whether someone is granted asylum or not. According to the current system, the countries where applicants first arrived are supposed to take back people who have not been granted asylum. This does not usually happen. The new pact will attempt to revise the system by providing more uniform services and conditions across the EU, so that certain member states are not considered more attractive than others.  Deportations to become easier The new pact will also allow for the speedier deportation of people to countries of origin or transit, if these have been declared safe. The EU is attempting to seal more agreements with third-party states, such as Tunisia, Mauritania and Egypt, to persuade them to take in more people whose requests for asylum have been rejected. Tunisia, for instance, has agreed to take back its own nationals in return for economic aid, but its government does not want to take in people from sub-Saharan Africa who initially passed through Tunisia on their way to the EU. A 2016 agreement between the EU and Turkey had led to fewer Syrians arriving in Greece over a period of four years. But now, the Turkish government does not want to take back Syrians whose applications have been rejected, so the deal no longer applies.  Database will provide EU-wide information According to the new pact, personnel on the external borders of the EU will in future record all people entering the bloc. Biometric information will be stored in a database that will be accessible across the EU. This will help determine whether somebody who is applying for asylum in one EU member state has already been rejected in another. It will also make it easier to deport people back to the first point of entry or to their country of origin. There have been several attempts to implement such a database since 2015. The current Eurodac database, which only stores fingerprints, has various technical deficiencies. New pact remains controversial Supporters of the new pact have argued that stricter asylum rules and procedures will speed up deportations and act as a deterrent. They've said that fewer people will risk making the journey to Europe because their chances of being able to stay will be restricted. Critics have said the pact undermines the fundamental right to asylum in the EU, and fear people in need of protection will be rejected. They've said people trying to get to the EU by crossing the Mediterranean, for example, will continue to die. What now? At the end of April, the Council of the European Union, which represents the 27 member states, will have to give its approval to the new migration pact, but this is considered just a formality. When the pact does come into force, with its various laws and regulations, it remains to be seen whether member states will fulfill their new obligations. Will Italy set up functioning centers on its borders? Will the bloc's northern and eastern member states show solidarity and take in more migrants, or at least provide funds for them? It's expected that it will take two years for the pact to be implemented, but it will be many more years before it's clear whether the number of asylum-seekers in Europe has fallen as a result or not.

On Tuesday, the King, 75, welcomed the Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey and Chief Cashier Sarah John to Buckingham Palace to receive the first bank notes featuring his portrait. The sovereign, who has postponed public-facing duties while receiving cancer treatment, appeared in good spirits during the small audience, where he had a lighthearted reply to the £5, £10, £20 and £50 bills featuring his face. "Very elegant," King Charles said of the design, which is an engraving inspired by a picture of him taken in 2013, the BBC reported. According to the outlet, it’s tradition for the British sovereign to receive the first issues of a new tender. The new polymer banknotes will enter circulation on June 5 and the existing bills featuring the late Queen Elizabeth will remain in use. The Bank of England said that the new banknotes will only be printed to replace bills that have become worn or meet necessary increase.  "Our approach is in line with guidance from the Royal Household, to minimize the environmental and financial impact of this change," the national bank explained in a statement — no surprise given King Charles’ lifelong interest in sustainability and conservation. The Bank of England Governor also told the King that the new money marked the hub’s first time swapping sovereigns on the currency, as Queen Elizabeth was the first sovereign to have her image on all Bank of England bills, the BBC said. Unlike the money famously affiliated with his late mother throughout her record 70-year reign, however, King Charles is not wearing a crown in the currency. The outlet added that the induction of the new money marks "one of the last major steps of the transition" to King Charles’ reign following his accession in September 2022 upon his mother’s death. His likeness is already featured across coins and stamps in the U.K., and where he is depicted without a crown in a portrait facing to the left. That shot is an adapted version of the portrait created by Martin Jennings for The Royal Mint. Kings "have not always worn a crown, so quite rightly, the King has decided that's the image he wants, and we are very happy to show that image as he chose," David Gold, director of external affairs and policy at the Royal Mail, said of what King Charles chose. The sovereign’s latest audience at Buckingham Palace came a week after his surprise Easter Sunday walkabout with Queen Camilla. In an unexpected move, the royal couple shook hands and exchanged holiday wishes with a small crowd following a service at St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle on March 31.  The public interaction was unexpected, as the royal couple sat apart from the rest of the congregation (including several members of the royal family) in line with medical advice to minimize the risk of infection amid the King’s treatment.  The sovereign briefly spoke about his health during the mini walkabout, as seen in video shared to X by Rebecca English of the Daily Mail.  "Get well soon, Your Majesty," one woman said outside the chapel, prompting the King to reply, "I'm doing my best!" A royal source tells PEOPLE that the sovereign is "progressing well" in his treatment and there is an "amplified confidence" amid the sophisticated treatment receiving. "He is positive, the doctors are optimistic," the source says.   Source: People  

Ireland's parliament has voted in Simon Harris as the country's youngest ever prime minister. Harris, 37, replaces Leo Varadkar after he abruptly quit last month citing personal and political reasons. Simon Harris has become the Republic of Ireland's youngest ever prime minister, or taoiseach, after being elected to succeed party colleague Leo Varadkar. The 37-year-old former health and higher education minister, best known for coordinating Ireland's initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic, received 88 votes from lawmakers, with 69 against. Fine Gael party leader Harris will now travel to the official residence of the president of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, where his appointment will be confirmed. Harris' predecessor both as Fine Gael leader and taoiseach, Varadkar, abruptly stepped down last month citing personal and political reasons. Varadkar formally resigned at an audience with President Higgins on Monday evening, paving the way for Harris' election on Tuesday. Who is Ireland's new prime minister, Simon Harris? Born in Greystones, County Wicklow, on Ireland's east coast, about 30 kilometres (18 miles) south of Dublin, Harris quit university aged 20 to work as a political aide, was elected to parliament at just 24 and was handed a cabinet post before he turned 30. At Fine Gael's annual party conference on Saturday, the father-of-two outlined his focus on law and order, supporting small businesses and reconnecting with rural voters. What are Simon Harris' political challenges? But Harris takes charge of a coalition government which has less than a year until an election which could see the opposition left-wing, Irish Republican Sinn Fein take power for the first time. Recent polling data shows Fine Gael on just 21% of the vote, ahead of coalition partners Fianna Fail (16%) but behind Sinn Fein (26%). Harris he will face the same deep-rooted problems, including unease at record numbers of asylum seekers but most notably a severe shortage of affordable housing. Data on Monday showed asking prices for Irish homes rose by 6.5% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2024, the fastest rate of growth since 2022. An opinion poll on Sunday showed housing remained Irish voters' top concern, and Harris has pledged to fix the crisis "once and for all." Harris is due to announce a reshuffle of the Fine Gael members of the cabinet, which therefore won't include the foreign or finance ministries, but a coalition agreement leaves little room for major new policy initiatives.

With lenders tightening their purse strings and the number of projects in decline, Chinese revenue earned from engineering and construction works in Africa has fallen by more than 30 per cent since 2015. Now observers say this is the “new normal”. It was a different picture almost a decade ago when Chinese companies earned more than a third of their total overseas revenue from Africa. That is certainly not the case today. According to data from the China Africa Research Initiative (CARI) at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, engineering and construction contracts in Africa earned Chinese companies US$37.84 billion in gross annual revenues in 2022, which was a 31 per cent drop from US$54.78 billion generated in 2015, the year lending to Africa was at its highest. Africa made up 19.4 per cent of global revenue for Chinese companies in 2022, CARI said, almost halved from its 2010 peak of 38.9 per cent. Excluding small businesses, it is estimated there are more than 10,000 state-owned and private Chinese companies currently operating in Africa. Most of these moved to the continent during former Chinese president Jiang Zemin’s push for businesses to “go out” in search of new markets and raw materials at the beginning of the century. Between 2000 and 2022, China pledged a total of US$170.1 billion to African countries – money that went into building mega projects, including ports, hydroelectric dams, highways and railways. But since the highs of the start of the century, and the peaks of the 2010s, lending concerns, exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, have sparked a turnaround, observers said. Worries over the ability of some countries to repay their loans led to a drop in Chinese lending to Africa, as financiers became more cautious and thorough in their loan appraisals. Between 2012 and 2018, Africa borrowed more than US$10 billion annually from Chinese lenders. By 2021 that had dropped to US$1.2 billion, and in 2022 it fell under the billion-dollar mark to US$994.5 million, according to the Chinese Loans to Africa database at Boston University’s Global Development Policy Centre. Hong Zhang, a China public policy postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University’s Ash Centre for Democratic Governance and Innovation, said it was a simple case of falling loans having a direct impact on falling revenue. “The drop in contract revenue in Africa can be attributed to the decline of Chinese loans to Africa,” Zhang said. Citing CARI data, she said Chinese loans to Africa had been declining since around 2013, except in 2016 when the debt restructuring in Angola made a one-off jump. Meanwhile, Asia’s share has been on the rise, she said. Asia remains by far the biggest source of revenue for Chinese companies engaged in engineering and construction contracts, bringing in US$82.43 billion in 2022, with Africa in second place. However, although revenue from Africa is in decline, some parts of the continent are bigger earners than others. China’s highest African revenues were gained from the five resource-rich countries of Nigeria, Angola, Algeria, Egypt and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Together, they accounted for 41 per cent of all Chinese companies’ 2022 gross annual revenues from construction projects in Africa. In Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy and most populous country, Chinese businesses are undertaking mega projects, such as multibillion-dollar railways and ports. China’s annual revenues from Nigeria rose steadily from US$488 million in 2004 to a peak of US$4.99 billion in 2012, boosted by the West African nation’s booming construction industry. Since then, that figure has remained high, sitting at around US$4.59 billion in 2022. Angola got more than a quarter of China’s total African lending between 2000 and 2022, receiving as much as US$45 billion. A major Chinese project there is the US$4.1 billion Caculo Cabaca Hydroelectric Power Station. Oil-rich Algeria has seen Chinese companies build massive projects, such as railways and highways. And in Egypt, Chinese firms are building mega projects at the Suez Canal as well as helping to construct the new administrative capital in Cairo. Meanwhile in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, many Chinese companies have been working on the nation’s infrastructure and mining sectors, attracted by the fact it holds the world’s largest reserve of cobalt, vital to the production of electric vehicle batteries. Yunnan Chen, a senior research officer at the London-based Overseas Development Institute think tank, said contracts and revenues were down for engineering and construction projects in Africa because the number of projects had fallen. Even before the pandemic, financing for infrastructure construction via overseas finance was in decline, she said, and that was impacted further by the Covid lockdowns. “We simply don’t have the same kind of project pipeline as we did in previous years,” Chen said. She also noted that several African countries, including Angola and Egypt, had been facing external debt repayment issues. “Governments don’t have the capacity to borrow to finance new construction as they did five years ago,” she said. The current situation is the “new normal” for Chinese contractors in Africa, according to Tim Zajontz, a research fellow in the Centre for International and Comparative Politics at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. “Lower contract revenues are ultimately the result of more conservative lending practices on the part of China’s policy banks,” said Zajontz. “Debt sustainability concerns have ended the loan funding spree in African infrastructure markets, which we witnessed for good parts of the 2010s,” he said. But, despite the reduced revenue, Africa still holds an attraction for Chinese firms. Higher returns is one such pull for Chinese companies, according to Zhang. She explained that since there is usually no competitive bidding for Chinese-financed projects, as “Chinese contractors help broker the loans from China”, companies can see better returns. “Therefore, when Chinese loans took up a higher percentage of Chinese contracts in Africa than in other regions, the average return could be higher as a result,” Zhang said. Zajontz noted that Africa is particularly attractive to firms in sectors that have faced crises in China’s domestic market, such as construction and infrastructure. “We will see further diversification of Chinese investments across Africa,” he said. “A bigger share of returns for Chinese firms will come from public-private partnerships in infrastructure, from investments in the processing of minerals and agricultural goods, and from digital platforms and other services.”   Source: South China Morning Post

Donald Trump posted a $175 million bond in his New York civil fraud case, halting collection of the more than $454 million he owes in the case. Former President Donald Trump posted a $175 million (€163 million) bond in his New York civil fraud case on Monday, staving off the possible seizure of his assets while the case is on appeal. The bond bars New York Attorney General Letitia James from collecting the $355 million — plus interest and growing daily — that a state judge ordered Trump to pay after a monthslong trial. Trump's financial lifeline Last week a New York appeals court gave the former president 10 days to stump up the money after a panel of judges agreed last month to the $454 bond payment he was originally required to pay. "As promised, President Trump has posted bond. He looks forward to vindicating his rights on appeal and overturning this unjust verdict," said one of Trump's lawyers, Alina Habba. Trump's legal team had complained it was "a practical impossibility" to get an underwriter to sign off on a bond for the $454 million, plus interest, that he owes. Trump properties safe for now The bond prevents New York Attorney General Letitia James from pursuing Trump's properties, including Trump Tower, his 370-acre resort and golf course in Westchester and his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Trump is seeking to to overturn a judge's finding in February, that he lied about his wealth, inflating his true worth on annual financial statements in order to deceive banks and financial institutions. The former president denies wrongdoing and contends that the statements lowball the true extent of his worth. Last month Trump posted $91.6 million bond to cover money he owes to writer E. Jean Carroll. Juries found that he sexually assaulted her in the 1990s and defamed her when she went public with the allegation in 2019.  He denies all of the allegations.

Bangladesh's top order failed completely with in the Test series against Sri Lanka. However, batsman Mominul Haque fought alone with the bat. However, he affirmed his place among Bangladesh's cricketing elite, becoming only the fourth Bangladeshi player to surpass the remarkable milestone of 4000 runs in Test cricket. Before the second and final Test against Sri Lanka at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium, Mominul had scored 3975 runs in 112 innings of 60 matches. He was 25 runs away from 4,000 runs. Mominul scored 33 runs in the first innings of the Test thus he named 4,000 clubs in his Test career.

Bangladesh and Bhutan today signed three new memorandum of understandings (MoUs) and renewed one to enhance mutual cooperation between the two neighbouring countries. The new MoUs are - Establishment of Special Economic Zone in Kurigram, setting up a Burn and Plastic Surgery Unit in Thimphu and technical cooperation on Consumers Rights. Besides, another MoU on cultural exchange was also renewed. Visiting Bhutanese King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Bhutanese Queen Jetsun Pema Wangchuck witnessed the signing ceremony held at Prime Minister's Office (PMO). Earlier, on his arrival at the PMO, the Bhutanese king was received by the prime minister. Wangchuck also hold a delegation-level meeting with Sheikh Hasina prior to the signing ceremony. They also had a Tête-à-tête (one-to-one meeting). Health Minister Dr. Samanta Lal Sen and Bhutanese Health Minister Tandin Wangchuk signed the MoU on establishment of Plastic Surgery Unit in Thimphu, Executive Chairman of Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA) Shaikh Yusuf Harun and Bhutanese Commerce Secretary Tashi Wangmo signed the MoU on Establishment of Special Economic Zone in Kurigram on behalf of their respective sides. Directorate of National Consumers' Right Protection Director General AHM Shafiquzzaman and Bhutanese Commerce Secretary Tashi Wangmo inked the MoU on technical cooperation on Consumers Rights. Cultural Affairs Secretary Khalil Ahmed and Bhutanese Foreign Secretary Pema Choden signed the renewal of MoUs on cultural exchange on behalf of their respective sides. In addition, Bangladesh has offered to increase the number of annual medical seats for Bhutanese students to 30 from 22. The Foreign Service Academy of Bangladesh has offered two seats for the Bhutanese foreign service officers every year for capacity building and would also like to extend necessary assistance in setting up a Diplomatic Training Institute in Bhutan. Apart from this, annual special training to Bhutanese three batches' officials in Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC) for three years has also been offered. Meanwhile, as a special gesture of goodwill and friendship, Bangladesh handed over computers and laptops for the capacity building and skill development of the government officials of Bhutan.   Source: BSS