Tread carefully on forex use

In a move unprecedented in Bangladesh's economic history, the government has decided to use 524.56 million euros (Tk 5,417 crore) from the foreign exchange (forex) reserves for the dredging of a channel for Payra Port in Patuakhali, as part of a plan to use the reserves for high-priority development projects. This is the first project to be bankrolled from the Bangladesh Infrastructure Development Fund (BIDF), which was set up to lend money from the reserves. According to the finance ministry, the government will only use the fund to invest in projects that would have a high rate of return, and annual investment from BIDF would not be more than USD 2 billion.