DHAKA: The incumbent government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina looks towards a fresh and forward-looking engagement with the international community in its current tenure for realizing the vision for a secular, democratic, stable and socio-economically vibrant Bangladesh, said foreign minister Abul Hasan Mahmood Ali.

The foreign minister was briefing ambassadors and representatives from a group of countries at the state guest house Padma on Wednesday afternoon.

He thanked the envoys attended the briefing for supports of their respective governments to the newly formed government following the 10th parliamentary elections including congratulatory messages and incoming diplomatic visits, and reaffirmed that prime minister Sheikh Hasina and her government stays firm in its commitment to take political, economic and development cooperation with these governments to new trajectories both bilaterally and multilaterally.

The foreign minister also briefed the envoys on the stable and strong socio-economic indicators of the country in the post-election period including robust growth in the RMG exports, low inflation rates and a large development budget towards a resilient economic recovery given a stable and peaceful environment in the country.

Advisers to the prime minister for political affairs HT Imam and that for international affairs, Dr Gowher Rizvi and state minister for foreign affairs Shahriar Alam, among others, were present during the briefing.

According to the foreign ministry, this is the first of a series of diplomatic briefings for foreign envoys.

Ambassadors and representatives of 13 countries including Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Holy See, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Norway, Russian Federation, Switzerland and the USA and United Nations Resident Coordinator(UN RC) of the UN System in Bangladesh were present during the first day of briefing.

BDST: 1855 HRS, MAY 14, 2014