The Chief Adviser to the interim government, Dr. Muhammad Yunus, has called on Meta to take action to stop misleading misinformation against Bangladesh on social media Facebook.

He made the call when he met with the Chief Adviser, Director (Human Rights Policy) of Meta, Miranda Sissons, at the State Guest House Jamuna on Sunday (December 8).

Dr. Yunus said that there is widespread misinformation on social media and we are the victims of it.

He mentioned that misinformation is being spread against Bangladesh from some countries to undermine the July-August mass uprising.

Meta Director Sissons explained Meta's human rights policy to the Chief Adviser and said that they are careful to ensure that no one can spread misinformation using their platform.

The Chief Adviser urged Meta to make technology easier for young entrepreneurs. He said, your potential is immense because of Facebook. Facebook can be used to nurture young people as entrepreneurs. The Bangladesh government will be associated with Facebook for the benefit of the country's young population.

Professor Yunus said that the Bangladesh government will be associated with Facebook for the benefit of the country's young population.

At that time, SDG Principal Coordinator Lamia Morshed, Personal Secretary-2 to the Principal Adviser Sajeeb M Khairul Islam, MAT's Head of Public Policy in Bangladesh and Nepal Rujan Sarwar, MAT's Associate General Counsel Nayantara Narayan, and MAT's Head of Misinformation for Asia-Pacific Alice Budishatrijo were present.

Food Adviser Ali Imam Majumdar said, ‘We will not depend on any single country for food imports. Since we have a food shortage, we will fill that shortage by importing from other countries. That is what we are trying to do.’

He said these things in response to a question from journalists after inspecting the construction work of a steel silo under construction on the banks of the Meghna in Ashuganj, Brahmanbaria on Sunday (December 8) afternoon.

The food adviser said, ‘The ministry is giving more importance to rice procurement. Currently, there are 22 lakh tons of food in stock. The government is working to increase it to 30 lakh tons.’

He said, ‘We have initially planned to buy food grains from the international market. First, it will be imported from India. Secondly, it will be done through direct communication through government-to-government. Of this, one hundred thousand tons of rice will be imported from Myanmar. We will also bring rice from Vietnam. Besides, the government will directly contact the government of Thailand and Pakistan to import rice from different countries.

Ali Imam Majumdar said, "Buying rice from India will be comparatively cheaper. For this, approval has been given to import 150,000 tons of rice. We hope that rice will arrive soon." Stating that when there is good rice production in the country, the amount of import is less, he said, "Sometimes we have to import to fill the deficit. This time, agricultural land has been damaged in the eastern region due to floods. The Ministry of Agriculture has said that there may be a food shortage. That is why we have decided to import."

Commenting that the power import deal with Adani is controversial and one-sided, Dr. Fahmida Khatun, executive director of the private research institute Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD), said, "This deal was made bypassing the people. Bangladesh's interests have not been safeguarded here."

Dr. Fahmida Khatun made these remarks as the chief guest at the shadow parliament organized by Debate for Democracy on the lack of good governance in the financial sector to prevent corruption at the FDC in the capital on Sunday (December 8). Debate for Democracy Chairman Hasan Ahmed Chowdhury Kiron presided over the program.

She said, despite the strained relations with India, there will be no major difficulties in the trade sector. If necessary, we will have to take initiatives to purchase our products from alternative countries.

CPD's executive director said, "To protect the interests of depositors, Bangladesh Bank has printed money and given it to weak banks considering the emergency situation, this money cannot be used for loans or business purposes in any way."

According to the existing rules of Bangladesh Bank, no current or former government official can be the governor or deputy governor. Even then, we see that bureaucrats have been appointed there to implement dishonest intentions.

He said, we have to get out of the culture of getting away with committing crimes. Otherwise, exploitation and corruption will continue with the change of power. Despite so many problems in the current banks, the previous government approved digital banks for people inexperienced in political considerations where nepotism was the main thing.

In his speech, Debate for Democracy Chairman Hasan Ahmed Chowdhury Kiron said that although the White Paper Committee on Economic Affairs referred to the financial sector as a thief regime during the past 15 years of rule, during the rule of the fallen government, they established not only a thief regime, but also a robbery regime including occupation and loot. 75 to 80 Padma bridges could have been built with the 234 billion dollars smuggled during the rule of the fallen government. With the Tk. 3 lakh crore of defaulted loans, 14 metro rail projects and 24 more projects like the Padma Bridge could have been built. State-owned enterprises are also not lagging behind in defaulted loans.

Not only Bangladesh, but also India is being affected by diplomatic tensions, said Towhid Hossain, the foreign affairs adviser to the interim government.

Stating that the economies of the two countries are being affected due to Bangladesh’s recent relations with India, he said, there has been a qualitative change in India-Bangladesh relations after August 5. However, work needs to be done on how to take the relationship forward.

The foreign affairs adviser made these remarks at a seminar titled ‘The SAARC- People of South Asia Crave for’ organized by the SAARC Journalists Forum (Bangladesh Chapter) on the occasion of the ‘40th SAARC Charter Day’ at the Zahur Hossain Chowdhury Hall of the National Press Club on Sunday (December 8).

Towhid Hossain said, we hope we can overcome this deadlock. And one of the most important things to overcome the deadlock is to establish communication. The Indian Foreign Secretary is coming tomorrow. I hope they will have a fruitful discussion.

He said, the chief adviser Dr. Muhammad Yunus is very positive about strengthening SAARC. We want to return to a normal relationship regionally.

This adviser to the interim government said, the current government may be temporary but the country and interests are permanent. I am sure that naturally there is a positive attitude towards SAARC among the people. The responsibility of the political leadership is to take it forward. Let a secretary-level meeting be started, which has not happened in the last 10 years and then we will try how to convert it into a summit.

The adviser expressed optimism about regional poverty alleviation and said, if we cooperate with each other, poverty in this region can be eliminated. We have to bring everyone out of poverty. We have not achieved some success, but we have to go some more, so everyone's cooperation will be needed. SAARC has to be brought to our performance level.

Under the chairmanship of Nasir Al Mamun, President of SAARC Journalists Forum (Bangladesh Chapter) and moderated by Rafiqul Islam Azad, Convener of the Seminar Organizing Committee, Strategic Expert Brigadier General (Retd.) Hasan Nasir, President of Dhaka Journalists Union Md. Shahidul Islam, among others, delivered speeches.

In addition, Mustafa Kamal Majumder, former editor of The daily New Nation newspaper, presented the key-note paper.