Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Friday said Bangladesh will be in the middle-income club well before her party’s target of 2021 as stated in its election manifesto.
“In our election manifesto we’ve already fixed a target of 2021 to be a middle-income country, but I can tell for sure we’ll be there well ahead of that time,” she said.
The Prime Minister said this while inaugurating the 4-day programme of Martyrs Day and International Mother Language Day at International Mother Language Institute in the capital.
Like all the historical struggles of the nation, Hasina said, her government would bow down its head to no one to achieve that great goal. “We won’t bow down to anyone …we’ll turn the country into a developed one by 2041,” she told her audience.
Laying emphasis on establishing the dignity of the mother language, the Prime Minister said it is not possible to attain anything without establishing the mother language.
“We’ll have to attain the economic emancipation like the mother language to establish ourselves as a dignified nation in the world,” she said.
Talking about the present government’s various development activities across the country, Hasina said the government has freed the country from the stigma of militancy, terrorism and corruption.
In this connection, she said the country recently managed to come out from the gray list of the Terrorism Financing of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) due to the pragmatic steps taken by the government.
Hasina mentioned the valuable contributions of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in the Language Movement and said in 1974, Bangabandhu first delivered his address to the UN General Assembly in Bangla to uphold Bangla language and culture among the international community.
Following the footprint of Bangabandhu, Hasina said, she also addressed the UN General Assembly every year in Bangla during her first term in 1996 and the immediate past tenure.
The Prime Minister said Unesco declared the Ekushey February as the International Mother Language Day in 1999 following the initiatives of some expatriate Bangladeshis living in Canada and prompt action of her government.
After the Unesco’s declaration, special responsibility bestowed upon the Bangalee Nation to protect the dignity of all languages, she mentioned.
After the UN declaration of International Mother Language Day, she promised to establish an International Mother Language Institute in Dhaka to carry out research on mother languages of other nations and ethnic minority groups and protect the dignity of blooming and near extinct languages.
As part of her promise, the Prime Minister said, she along then UN Secretary General Kofi Annan laid the foundation stone of the Institute in March 2001 but the successive BNP–Jamaat government stopped the process.
After 10 years of its closure, her government during its immediate past tenure restarted the construction work in 2009 and passed the International Mother Language Institute Act in 2010.
Hasina said Bangladesh has its separate pride and vividness in the context of language and diversity of alphabets. The regional forms of Bengali language are unique. “Besides, the languages and alphabets of ethnic minorities are the signs of our enriched culture.”
The Prime Minister said that the International Mother Language Institute will act as the institution where all the languages of the world would be preserved.
She said the government could not flourish the activities of the Institute due to the financial constrains, but gradually the government is increasing the budget for it.
Prof Emeritus of ULAB Prof Rafiqul Islam made the keynote presentation at the programme held with Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid in the chair.
Source: UNB Connect
