Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday said that it did not matter at all if someone did not go to the USA crossing the Atlantic Ocean on a 20-hour plane journey.
‘There are other oceans and other continents in the world, we will make friends with those continents crossing the other oceans. Our economy will be stronger and more developed and vibrant,’ she said firmly.
The prime minister said this while attending a programme organised to inaugurate the office building of the Dhaka district Awami League in the capital’s Tejgaon area.
She said that Bangladesh would run on its own feet and the government would build the country.
‘We will not be dependent on others, who will not give us visa, who will impose sanctions on us...there is no use thinking of that,’ she said.
On May 24, the US secretary of state Antony Blinken announced a new visa policy to support Bangladesh’s goal of holding free, fair, and peaceful national elections, restricting visa for any Bangladeshi individual undermining the democratic election process.
Hasina, also the chief of the ruling Awami League, said that her party knew very well what was to the welfare and benefit for the people of Bangladesh.
‘Keeping that in our mind we always work, and put the country in the developing country status. The country will be a developed country by 2041. We also formed Delta Plan 2100 for the future generations,’ she said.
She said that she had confidence and faith in the people of the country.
‘They know that only by casting their vote for Boat (electoral symbol of Awami League) their fate will be changed,’ she said.
She also told the Awami League leaders and workers that people paid you back if you sacrificed for the people.
‘You have to remember that. You have to strengthen the organisation so that no evil force could play duck and drake with the fate of the people of Bangladesh. It is our responsibility to save the people of the country from the clutches of the evil force,’ she said.
Regarding the criticism about the budget for 2023-24 fiscal, she said that the government placed the budget confident of implementing it.
‘They are repeating their same old songs which they usually utter during every budget period,’ she said.
Sheikh Hasina said that the government had been able to achieve remarkable development in Bangladesh.
‘This happened as in the 2008, 2014 and 2018 elections people of the country voted Awami League to power, there is a stable and democratic environment prevailing in the country and it resulted in this unprecedented economic development,’ she said.
She mentioned that if stability was not maintained and Awami League was not in power, ‘this sort of development’ would not have been possible in the country.
‘This is the ground reality, no one would work for the people of the country,’ the prime minister said.
Earlier, arriving at the venue, the prime minister unveiled the plaque of Dhaka district Awami League office. She also visited various parts of the office.
Awami League general secretary Obaidul Quader, PM’s private industry and investment adviser Salman Fazlur Rahman, Awami League presidium member lawyer Quamrul Islam, Awami League organising secretary Mirza Azam, home minister Asaduzzman Khan, state minister for power, energy and mineral resources Nasrul Hamid, state minister for disaster management and relief M Enamur Rahman and Dhaka district Awami League president Benjir Ahmed also spoke. Its general secretary Paniruzzaman Tarun conducted the programme.
