Bangladesh will enter a new programme with the International Monetary Fund only on terms that safeguard public interest and the nation’s economic security, Finance Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury said on Sunday, confirming the government had withdrawn from the previous IMF programme.

The minister, speaking to reporters at the secretariat in Dhaka, condemned the earlier programme as anti-public-interest, saying it contained conditions that were unacceptable to a democratic and elected government.

“Our primary concern isn’t about securing money but about protecting the country’s interests,” he said, according to a finance ministry press release. “As an elected government, our overriding priority is to safeguard the welfare of the people of Bangladesh and the economy.”

The finance minister said the government was entering a new programme in which the interests of the Bangladeshi people would be “one hundred percent preserved”.

Chowdhury added that the government would revise the country’s visa policy as part of efforts to build a modern Bangladesh and increase international confidence. The current visa policy would be revised and simplified, he said, expressing the hope that modernisation would boost foreign tourist arrivals, allow foreign investors to invest more easily, and reinforce the country’s global standing and credibility.

The minister also expressed condolences over the death of veteran politician Barrister Jamiruddin Sircar, describing him as an honest and capable public servant whose contribution to the country’s politics was immense and whose death was an irreparable loss to the political arena.