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PM-ADDRESS-ANNIVERSARY 2 LAST DHAKA
The prime minister also highlighted her government’s tremendous successes in different sectors, including agriculture, health, education, communication, aviation, ICT, women empowerment, tourism, power, sanitation and games and sports.
Mentioning that Bangladesh’s economy is now established on a strong foundation, the premier said small shocks could not be any barrier to the way of progress.
Sheikh Hasina said Bangladesh has become one of the five countries in the world in the economic advancement index.
According to the IMF, she said, Bangladesh’s economy secured 30th position on the basis of PPP and its economy will attain 23rd place by 2040 as per the projection of PricewaterhouseCoopers.
The premier said Bangladesh will be 26th greater economy in the world by 2030 according to projection of HBSC.
World Economic Forum has said Bangladesh will surpass other Asian countries, including India, in terms of economic growth, she said.
Sheikh Hasina said the government has formulated a 100-year long “Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100” to attain the desired goal of facing adverse impact of climate change.
She said the 7th five-year plan is being implemented incorporating the SDGs into it, while the work on formulating the 8th five-year plan has also started.
Sheikh Hasina said there is a huge difference between today’s Bangladesh and 10-year back Bangladesh.
“The living standard of the people has improved significantly and their purchasing capacity has increased to a great extent”, she said.
The prime minister said the country’s people had forgotten to see the dream of something good.
“But now the people dream and they dream of better life and live beautifully … we are working to transform these dreams into realities,” she said.
Sheikh Hasina said that it was beyond the people’s imagination that a bridge will be built over the mighty river Padma and on which they will cross the river directly by vehicles or trains.
“We are going to turn the dream into a reality,” she said, adding the construction of the Padma Bridge is progressing with own finance and over two-third construction work has been completed.
On the relations with neighbouring countries, Sheikh Hasina said Bangladesh believes in moving ahead by maintaining good relations with its neghbouring countries and the world.
“The main essence of the foreign policy formulated by the Father of the Nation is ‘friendship to all, malice to none’. Especially, we have attached the highest priority to maintain good relations and harmony with the neighbours,” she said.
Sheikh Hasina said Bangladesh wants to resolve bilateral relations through dialogue. “This is not our weakness, rather a strategy. For that reason we didn’t step into the trap despite having provocation from the Myanmar side,” she said.
She said a case has been lodged with the International Court of Justice. “We hope that we will get a formula for permanently resolving the (Rohingya) issue”.
The prime minister said the continuous development in the socioeconomic sector and growing participation of Bangladesh in the international arena have brightened Bangladesh’s image further.
“The global support towards Bangladesh in different international forums, including the United Nations, is the testimony to that,” she said.
Referring to the birth centenary of Father of the nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the prime minister said the year 2020 is especially important in our national life.
She said the birth centenary of the Father of the Nation is set to celebrate this year and the grand opening of the year long programmes will start from March 17 next.
“We’ve already declared 2020-2021 as the “Mujib Borsho”. The programmes of the golden jubilee of the independence and birth centenary of the Father of the Nation will continue simultaneously,” she said.
Sheikh Hasina said this celebration is not only a formality, its target is to infuse new strength into the national life and advance another step forward on the way to materialise the dream of the Father of the Nation by teaching the nation with a new mantra on the eve of the golden jubilee of independence.
BSS/AHJ-SH/KU/2022hrs