Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said Bangladesh is now unstoppable in its development drive and no conspiracy can stop it from progressing.
“Bangladesh is becoming an indomitable power. Its ongoing development can’t be stopped by plotting any conspiracy or carrying out destructive activities. Bangladesh will be a middle-income country much before 2021 by eradicating hunger and poverty,” she told a reception in the Hague on Thursday night.
Members of the Bangladeshi community in the Dutch capital accorded the reception to her at a local hotel.
Referring to the political situation in Bangladesh after the 1/11 changeover in 2007, Hasina said the then caretaker government denied her entry to the country from London. “At that time some expatriate Bangladeshis came forward, putting their lives at risk, and accompanied me to Bangladesh.”
Terming the Netherlands a good friend of Bangladesh, the premier said the country had been always beside Bangladesh during its needs.
Bangladesh, she said, would have been a developed nation long ago had Bangabandhu been alive. “Bangabandhu during his three-and-a-half-year tenure in power had completed most of the tasks for cementing the foundation of an independent and sovereign state,” added the PM.
Hasina said the people of Bangladesh had to suffer for long 21 years and they received real taste of development in 1996 when the Awami League came to power. But their happiness didn’t last for more than five years as the BNP-Jamaat came to power again in 2001.
She said the 2008 election was a turning point in Bangladesh’s history when people voted the AL to power again. “With this change, the country got back the momentum of development in every sector.”
The PM blasted the BNP for scrapping a deal with a Dutch company to procure computers for government offices. The then AL government (1996-2001) had entered a deal with the Dutch computer manufacturer Tulip Computers NV to purchase computers.
As the “Tulip” coincided with the name of Tulip Siddiqui, one of the nieces of Hasina, the subsequent BNP government scrapped the deal on the plea that the Tulip Computer NV was owned by Tulip Siddiqui, now a member of British parliament.
“The unscrupulous decision of the then BNP government caused a loss of Tk 32 crore to the national exchequer that came as a fine for breach of the contract,” the PM said.
About the role of the expatriates in Bangladesh’s development, she said they contributed to all political, economic and social achievements of the country.
“Expatriates have a major role in the country’s current economic development as they send around $27.2 billion in remittance every year.”
Hasina recalled that expatriates had sent Sir Thomas William to fight for Bangabandhu in the Agartala conspiracy case. They had initiated a move to send William to investigate the killing of the Father of the Nation, but “Ziaur Rahman barred him from coming to Bangladesh”, she noted.
She urged the expatriates and foreign entrepreneurs to invest in Bangladesh.
State Minister for Water Resources Nazrul Islam and AL leaders from the UK and the Netherlands spoke, among others.
