State Minister for Health and family Welfare Zahid Maleque has said Bangladesh is marching forward in population development by putting people’s empowerment at the heart of its national development agenda.
The junior minister said this in a country statement made at the 50th session of the Commission on Population and development (CPD) at the UN Headquarters.
He is leading a Bangladesh delegation at the 50th session of the Commission on Population and development (CPD) being held at the UNHQ in New York, according to a message received here.
“Bangladesh has made considerable progress in realising the International Conference of Population and Development (ICPD) of actions and Bangladesh aspires to be a middle-income country by 2021 and an industrialised one by 2041,” Zahid siad.
He noted that the inclusive economic growth in Bangladesh has been over 6 percent for the past decade and more than 7 percent in the current year, resulting in impressive poverty reduction which is below 21 percent in recent years.
In his statement, Zahid mentioned the measures taken by the present government to ensure women’s empowerment, gender parity, girls education, youth development, employment generation, social security and the wellbeing of elderly population, and to protect girls from child marriage and malnutrition.
The State Minister said the government has allocated the highest 17 percent of its national budget in education. “We’ve ensured free education up to secondary level for all and achieved 100 percent enrollment in the primary level. Bangladesh has given also special attention to primary healthcare through about 8000 community clinics and union health centres by providing free medicine and health counseling.”
All contiguous diseases like diarrhea, cholera, AIDS and TB are under control, the junior minister said adding that maternal mortality rate has gone down from 542 to 170, child mortality from 132 to 43; life expectancy has increased to 70years plus in the recent years.
Mentioning the contribution of about 10 million expatriate workers, Zahid reiterated that Bangladesh acknowledges and attaches high importance to the contributions made by migrants and has been advocating for safe, regular and orderly migration at the international level.
