PM off to UAE to join Dubai Air Show

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina left Dhaka for Dubai today on a four-day official visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to attend Dubai Air Show-2019 and other programmes, reports BSS. 

The premier will visit the UAE at the invitation of its ruler Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashed al Maktoum.

An Emirates flight carrying the prime minister and her entourage members took off from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) in Dhaka for Dubai at 6.45pm.

The flight is scheduled to reach Dubai International Airport at 10.10 pm (local time) where Bangladesh Ambassador to the UAE Mohammad Imran will receive the premier.

After the reception at the airport, a ceremonial motorcade will escort the premier to Shangri-La Hotel in Abu Dhabi, where she will be staying during her visit to the UAE.

On November 17, Sheikh Hasina will attend the opening ceremony of the Dubai Air Show - 2019, one of the largest and most successful air shows in the world and the biggest aerospace event in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, at Dubai World Central (Dubai Al Maktoum Airport) in the morning.

She will later the flying display in the afternoon at Dubai World Central.

As many as 87,000 participants and 1,300 exhibitors from all over the world are expected to gather at Dubai World Central - Dubai’s airport of the future.

The biennial air show will once again take over the skies of Dubai on November 17-21, and is expected to surpass the feats of Dubai Airshow 2017, which concluded with an order book worth more than $113.8 billion and welcomed 79,380 attendees and 1,200 exhibitors from 63 countries.

Concluding the four-day visit to the UAE, the premier will return home on November 19.

“During the visit of the honorable prime minister, three instruments - two bilateral cooperation documents and a protocol - are expected to be signed between Bangladesh and the UAE,” Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen told a news briefing on Thursday.

The three instruments are bilateral cooperation between Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) and Emirates Development Authority, between Bangladesh Economic Zone Authority (BEZA) and Emirates Economic Zone Authority and protocol on allotment of land plot for Bangladesh Embassy in Abu Dhabi.

The foreign minister said the prime minister will inaugurate the Election Commission’s programme to start registering Bangladeshis working in the UAE on the voter list and distributing smart NID cards among them on November 18 at the Bangladesh Embassy in Abu Dhabi.

Apart from the ruler of Dubai, Momen said, Sheikh Hasina will also hold meetings with Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and UAE’s Supreme Chairwoman of the Family Development Foundation Sheikh Fatima Bint Mubarak.

During the visit, the prime minister is also expected to meet big UAE investor groups and businesspeople, Momen said.

“It is expected that the visit will have a positive impact on UAE investment in different sectors of Bangladesh and will help boost cooperation between the investment authorities,” he added.