Terming Great Britain as a great country, prime minister Sheikh Hasina has sought more support from it to keep what she said Bangladesh’s tremendous development and ongoing advancements, reports Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha.
‘Bangladesh is making impressive progress in every field. But we need more assistance from Great Britain as it’s a great country and has been supporting us for a long time. I hope that it would continue its support for the people of Bangladesh,’ she said.
The prime minister said this while addressing a reception at the office of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, UK Chapter, at British Parliament here on Monday afternoon. Chairman of All Party Parliamentary Group on Bangladesh Keith Vaz accorded the reception to the lawmakers who were elected for the first time in British Parliament.
PM’s ICT Advisor and her son, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, Labour Party MP and Tulip Rezwana Siddiq and a number of British House of Commons members also spoke at the function. Tulip is a niece of Bangladesh’s prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
PM’s Media Advisor Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam, Radwan Mujib Siddique Bobby, Bangladesh High Commissioner to Britain Md Abdul Hannan and PM’s Press Secretary AKM Shameem Chowdhury were present on the occasion.
Some 30 MPs including Rushana Ali, Dr Rupa Huq, Jimi Fitzpatrick, Anne Main, Kate Osamer, Catherin West, Jonathon Shaw, Andy Slater, Baroness Paula Uddin and CPA UK Chapter Chief Executive Andrew Tuggy were present.
Describing Britain as a major development partner of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina expressed the hope that Bangladesh and Britain would continue to work together for mutual benefits of the two countries.
The prime minister said Bangladesh is making good progress on all socioeconomic fronts. ‘We have opened the door as we established connectivity with Nepal, Bhutan and India and we are also going to establish connectivity with China, India and Myanmar through the BCIM Economic Corridor,’ she said.
Pointing out the recent visit of Indian prime minister Narendra Modi to Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina said she told the Indian premier one thing that, ‘We have a common vision of rooting out poverty from the region forever.’
‘I have been trying my best to create a friendly atmosphere so that we can solve all problems. Our aim is to alleviate poverty and provide basic needs to the people,’ she said.
Responding to the speech of a British parliament member in which he raised the issue of safety of the workers in Bangladesh’s readymade garment industry, Sheikh Hasina said her government always works for the downtrodden people like workers, farmers and the common people.
‘The government has started taking care how the workers can get a good atmosphere in their workplace,’ she said. Noting the government efforts for further reducing the poverty rate, the Prime Minister said the present government wants to cut the poverty rate by 10 percent further during its tenure.
‘Poverty rate has been slashed to 22.7 percent and we want to reduce it by 10 more percent in the next three and a half years and I am confident that we would be able to achieve the goal,’ she said.
Source: New Age