The government has ensured “adequate” stock of daily essentials including edible oil, sugar and pulses to keep prices of these food items under control during the Ramadan, Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Faruk Khan told parliamentyesterday.

“I want to assure people that the government is not only monitoring the market, but also has imported adequate amount of different essentials to ensure there is no problem in Ramadan,” Faruk replied to lawmakers' queries on behalf of Commerce Minister GM Quader.

The commerce minister was not present in the House at that time.

The government will also import some other food items to meet additional requirement in Ramadan, he mentioned.

Responding to another query, he said the government will soon allocate industrial plots at Baosia in Gozaria upazila of Munshiganj to set up an active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) park.

A Bangladeshi trade delegation will visit Ghana, Liberia, Cote d'Ivoire and Senegal from June 23 to July 7 to explore medicine markets there, the minister told another questioner.

Besides, several other trade delegations will visit South Africa, Botswana and Brazil to identify potential medicine markets, added Faruk.

An API is the substance in a pharmaceutical drug or pesticide that is biologically active.

According to available data, local drug makers produce only five to seven percent of the total API requirements in Bangladesh, while the rest is imported.

Industry sources said the opportunity in API manufacturing is huge and 100 percent value addition is possible.