Staff Correspondent

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday sought cooperation from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in implementing a blue economy and extracting every resources from the country’s maritime boundary

She made the plea while visiting Asian Development Bank (ADB) Vice President Yingming Yang called on her at her office in Sangsad Bhaban.

PM’s press secretary M Nayeemul Islam Khan briefed reporters after the call on.

Hasina also sought help in agricultural research although Bangladesh is doing well in this arena and the country has a vast number of good researchers.

She mentioned that the per capital income and purchasing capacity of the people of Bangladesh needed to be improved.

“We want to develop Bangladesh as a big market particularly for our own products,” she said.

She put emphasis on the production of agricultural products as she mentioned that ensuring food security is the priority for the government.

“We consider agriculture as the backbone of the economy for food security taking industrialisation with it. keeping agriculture in the important place we are in favour of going for Industrialisation,” she added.

Hasina also sought logistic support from the ADB to strengthening Bangladesh’s competitiveness for its export items after the graduation from the LDC status in 2026.

She briefly described various short, medium and long-term programmes of the government to improve the country into a developed one by 2041.

In this connection she mentioned about the government’s aim is to end absolute poverty and to be graduated into higher middle-income status by 2031, and eradicate poverty on the way to becoming a developed nation by 2041.

The prime minister asked the ADB to assist Bangladesh in integrated river management including river training, capital dredging and maintenance dredging.

The ADB vice president Yingming Yang highly appreciated the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

He said that ADB has decided to increase their support in Urban and Water policy from 13 percent of the total support to 26 percent.

He mentioned that ADB wants to assist Bangladesh in health project and digital technology apart from collaborating in agricultural research in the longer version.

He said that ADB wants to help Bangladesh in primary education and healthcare skill development in its new five-year plan.

The ADB vice president said that ADB wants to develop a city master plan for Bangladesh to make better use of available resources.

In this connection, the Prime Minister asked them to consider upazilas in Bangladesh for their project as the government is advancing the country as Smart Bangladesh by 2041.