Visiting SAARC agriculture ministers on Thursday highly appreciated Bangladesh’s tremendous success in socioeconomic field under the visionary and dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
The appreciation came when they called on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel after the inaugural function of the Third Meeting of SAARC Ministers’ of Agriculture on Thursday morning.
After the meeting, PM’s Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim briefed reporters.
He said the SAARC agriculture ministers also praised Bangladesh’s success in the field of agriculture as well as achieving 7.05 percent GDP growth rate in the current fiscal and increasing per capita income to US Dollar 1466.
The Prime Minister termed the poverty as a “common enemy” of the region and stressed the need for united efforts by all the South Asian countries to eradicate poverty.
“We must work together for eliminating poverty from the region,” she remarked.
While talking about Bangladesh’s impressive success in agriculture sector, Sheikh Hasina spelled out her government’s various pragmatic steps for the development of agriculture.
“Our integrated efforts including research in agriculture sector have turned Bangladesh into a food-surplus nation,” she said.
Sheikh Hasina also illustrated her government’s steps for socioeconomic uplift of the people.
In this connection, she pointed out enhancement of salary and allowances of the government employees by highest 123 percent and containing inflation.
“Despite massive increasing of salary and allowances of the government staff, we have been able to keep the inflation under control,” she said.
At the outset of the meeting, the Premier welcomed the SAARC agriculture ministers in Bangladesh and termed the Third Meeting of SAARC Ministers’ of Agriculture as “valuable” in which they are participating.
Bangladesh Agriculture Minister Begum Matia Chowdhury, Indian Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Radha Mohan Singh, Nepalese Minister for Agriculture Development Haribol Prasad Gajurel, Bhutanese Minister for Agriculture & Forestry Yeshi Dorji, Pakistan Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Sikandar Hayat Khan Bosan and SAARC Secretary General Arjun Bahadur Thapa were present, among others.
