The United States of America (USA) considers Bangladesh as one of the prospective countries in South Asia provided that the country get rid of corruption. "Bangladesh is a country of huge potentials," a top official of the US Department of State, South Asian Desk told this correspondent in Hawaii recently. But to make its enormous potentiality into reality, the country must have to eliminate widespread corruption, he said on condition anonymity. The US official made this comment on Bangladesh's future potentials, while he was talking on the prospects of South Asian countries and the issue of strengthening the US relationships with India and Pakistan. US President George W Bush just ended his visit to Pakistan after completion of a three-day tour to India. The US official said, as per US policy on South Asia, the world's super power is now interested to strengthen relationships with both these two nuclear powers of this region - India and Pakistan - on separate arrangements. The US wants to bolster the relationship with these two countries in order to counter the unabated growth of China on one hand and to fight against terror especially against Al-Qaida in Afghanistan on the other. To control the skyrocketing economic growth of China, the US is now interested to enhance bilateral economic relationships with India to establish a balanced trade in Asia and the world as well, the US official added. The US has already signed a nuclear energy treaty with India a couple of days back to support US technical know-how in India and help the country meet its huge energy need in future to cope with its economic growth. The US considers India as a secular country in South Asia. It also encourages US investors to invest in India terming it as a safe destination for investment, the US official said. The US considers Pakistan as a strategic partner to fight against terrorism and hence the world super power supports its economy to be better. Regarding Bangladesh, which is a smaller country in South Asia, the US official said the country has huge energy resources. Besides, some of the steps taken by Bangladesh in mitigating poverty through micro-credit are now being taken as models in the world, he said. But corruption is hindering Bangladesh's development as it has topped the list of the world's most corrupt countries, prepared by the Transparency International (TI), for the last five consecutive years.
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