State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam today said Bangladesh would renew its efforts for making Bangla one of the official languages of the United Nations when the global body will go through a greater reform.

He said the selection process requires a huge involvement of money and questioned whether spending such amount every year will be logical.

"We thought about it and worked on it. We estimated around five to six years ago that it will require Tk 800 crore annually," Shahriar told reporters after attending a programme at Foreign Service Academy marking International Mother Language Day.

He however said the government has strong desire to make Bangla a UN official language.

He hoped that Bangladesh will have that capacity, but at this moment, opinions might not be favourable of such a plan.

The United Nations has six official languages - Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

In February 2021, Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen said there is no opposition from the member countries to Bangla as another UN official language, but the UN has said it does not have money to fund it.