ZCZC
BSS-07
PM-KIB-CONVENTION 2 DHAKA
The prime minister said the next election is nearing and the Awami League
remained in power for two consecutive terms.
“If the people give mandate to us we’ll come to power again … if they
don’t give vote to us in the third term we’ll not come to power. But we don’t
want the advancement that we initiated remains halted,” she said.
Sheikh Hasina also urged the agriculturists to work with utmost sincerity
to materialise Bangabandhu’s dream of establishing a hunger and poverty-free
Sonar Bangla.
The premier advised the agriculturists to work for producing more food
grains from limited land and focus more attention on food processing.
She said the agriculture sector is one of the main driving forces of
Bangladesh’s economic development. “The amount of farmland in the country is
decreasing day by day due to booming population, urbanisation and setting up
mills and factories,” she said.
“On the other hand, the demand for agri products is going up, and to face
the twin challenges, we’ve to produce more food grains,” she added.
Sheikh Hasina said Bangladesh is now fourth in the world in rice
production, third in vegetables production, third in fish production, eighth
in potato production and seventh in mango production.
“We’re going to become self-reliant in meat and egg production and this
development has been possible due to coordinated efforts of agri research,
inputs supply and expansion and service sector,” she said.
Laying importance on value addition to these products and increasing
processing of foods, the premier said market is expanding due to
socioeconomic development of the people. “If value addition is made to these
foods, we can export the products at larger volume after meeting our domestic
demands,” she said.
The prime minister said special focus will have to be given for processing
agri products to further strengthen the country’s economy. “We’re encouraging
all concerned in this regard so that more investment comes in this sector,”
she also said.
“We’ll produce more food grains and will process the foods which have huge
demands at home and abroad.”We want to earn more foreign currencies by
exporting foods and thus strengthen our economy … we’re working with this
goal,” she said.
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