Making Bangla a UN official language involves annual expenditure: Dipu

Foreign Minister Dipu Moni said on Thursday that Bangladesh would be required to spend Tk 440 crore each year if Bangla was made an official language of the United Nations and the other nations refuse to share the expenditure.

Replying to a question from Nasimul Alam Chowdhury, MP, she told parliament that at the UN getting a page of a document translated into Bangla requires US $ 2,500.

‘If Bangla was made an official language of the UN an estimated US $ 55 million (Tk 440 crore) would have to be spent per year,’ she said.

Dipu Moni said time had come for taking the economic responsibility of making Bangla an official UN language.

‘I would draw the attention of Parliament in this regard,’ she said.

And if no other state agrees to share the expense, Bangladesh would have to bear the expenditure alone, she said.

She said making a new language an official language of the UN also requires the mandate of the UN general assembly.

She said she had written to the foreign ministers of member states seeking their support to make Bangla an official UN language.

But for a few friendly nations, she said, most of the countries wanted know who would bear the expenditure and many of them wanted to know how it would benefit them.