The Prime Minister sought the cooperation of Asian countries for the return of Rohingyas

News Desk: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has suggested resolving any crisis among Asian countries through dialogue. He also sought the cooperation of the leaders of Asian countries in repatriating the Rohingyas who had taken refuge in Bangladesh after being displaced from Myanmar. He made the remarks in a video message on Friday (May 26th) at the 26th International Conference on Future Asia in Tokyo, Japan.

The two-day conference is being held in both streaming and on-site attendance. It is titled "Reviewing Asia's Role in the Divided World." In this, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina sought the cooperation of the leaders of Asian countries to send the Rohingyas back to their homeland. He said Bangladesh has given shelter to 1.1 million displaced people of Myanmar. We want everyone's cooperation to send them back to their home country Myanmar's Rakhine State with dignity and security. Sheikh Hasina called upon the countries of Japan and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to make it a priority to move Bangladesh from a least developed country to a developing country easily and to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. "We would be deeply grateful if Japan and other OCD countries would extend the priority benefits, at least until 2029," he said. So that we can achieve the highest goal of sustainable development by 2030. The Prime Minister said Bangladesh has called upon its friends and partners through the UN process to consider extending priority facilities to Bangladesh for an extended period beyond 2026. Bangladesh is in various stages of negotiating a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with a number of countries and has opened the door for negotiations on FTA and Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with other countries, including Japan. Describing Asia as the world's largest and most populous continent, he said about 70 percent of the world's population lives here. It is also home to some of the world's poorest people. Therefore, it is essential to ensure peace among the conflicting countries by resolving differences through dialogue. He also said that Asian countries can improve the socio-economic condition of the people only by creating an environment of peace and stability. In this context, he said, the main point of the foreign policy of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is - friendship with all, not enmity with anyone. Follows the approach. He said it was recognized by a UN resolution, the "culture of peace" adopted in 1999 and has been recognized every year since.

Sharing five ideas for building a future Asia at the conference, the Prime Minister said, "I am sharing with you some ideas to reflect the future of Asia." In her first resolution, Sheikh Hasina said the Asian countries need to extend a hand of friendship, understanding and cooperation to each other and promote solidarity in tackling division. In the second and third proposals, he discussed how ICT (information and communication technology) could best use the "soft power" of our country and Asian countries as a powerful tool to bridge the gap between respect, justice, inclusion and the need to protect inclusion. They can bring equality in our work and they can explore it. The Prime Minister, while outlining his Fourth and Fifth Concepts, said that the future of Asia would depend on sustainable and balanced development, improvement of international discipline and the establishment of favorable international relations for both sides. "We need to unite our forces to share good practice, knowledge and technology to help us meet our common challenges in the Asia-Pacific region," he said. The Prime Minister further said that Bangladesh will always strive to work with all its friends and partners to ensure a peaceful, sustainable world and prosperous Asia for our future generations. Mentioning the excellent relations between Bangladesh and Japan since our independence in 1971, he said, "We are deeply grateful for the invaluable support and contribution of Japan and its people, including school children, during our war of liberation." Japan is one of the first countries to recognize newly independent Bangladesh. They recognized it on February 10, 1982. Mentioning that they have made development in Bangladesh in the last 13 years people-oriented and inclusive, the Prime Minister said, "We have redefined our socio-economic vision to move forward with leadership and vision towards building a knowledge-based, prosperous and modern nation." "For example, we have formulated Delta Plan 2100 after Vision 2021 and Vision 2041," he said. Sheikh Hasina said Bangladesh has become one of the fastest growing economies in the world and one of the largest economies in the Asia-Pacific region. This journey is supported by Japan and our friends and partners. " Mentioning that Bangladesh, like other parts of the world, has been severely affected by the ongoing Covid-19, he said that before the epidemic in 2019, Bangladesh's GDP (gross domestic product) growth rate was 7.15 percent. In 2020 it is 3.51 percent and in 2021 it is 8.94 percent. "We expect a growth rate of more than 6 per cent in the current financial year," he said. He says they have tried to strike a balance between life and livelihoods while dealing with the effects of the epidemic. In fact, we have been relatively successful in managing the epidemic challenges.

Expressing satisfaction, he said, "Our efforts have been recognized in Nikkei's Covid-19 recovery index for April 2022. Bangladesh ranks fifth out of 121 countries and has been the best performing country in South Asia in terms of covid management and recovery. He added that in the fiscal year ending June 2022, Bangladesh's GDP is expected to reach 465 billion US dollars, export revenue of more than 52 billion US dollars, remittances 21 billion US dollars and per capita income is expected to reach 2,624 US dollars.

Noting that Bangladesh has been active and vocal on climate change in all discussions, including the recent COP-26, he said: I was the president. ' He said Bangladesh is active in promoting dialogue for cooperation through regional and multilateral platforms like SAARC, BIMSTEC, IORA, OIC, NAM, ARF, ASEM, SICA, Commonwealth.