Prime Minister Tarique Rahman on Thursday warned that those trying to destroy the country's mills and factories from across the border would face a fitting response from people, as they did in 2024.

“Just as the people of Bangladesh gave them a fitting response in 2024, we will give them the same in the days ahead,” he said while addressing a roadside rally at Katakhali intersection in Bagerhat.

The Prime Minister urged people, particularly workers, to stand against what he described as conspiracies to disrupt the country's industries and development plans.

“I firmly believe that no working person or worker would ever want to harm an industry. These mills and factories are national assets. They belong to the people of this country and to its workers,” he said.

He said the government had taken initiatives and drawn up plans to improve people's living standards, but conspirators were trying to derail those efforts.

“Now is the time to build our country and change the fortunes of our people. Let us unite with all our strength, alongside the working people and workers, to give these conspirators a fitting response,” Tarique said.

He alleged that those who had failed to improve people's lives over the past 15 to 16 years, deprived them of their voting rights and siphoned off wealth abroad were now trying to create disorder in the country from across the border.

The Prime Minister said workers and their families would suffer most if the factories were destroyed, as their livelihoods and children's future depended on them.

Referring to workers' wage demands, Tarique said the elected government was working round the clock to address the country's problems and expand industry and trade.

He said the government had already formed a wage board to consider workers' demands and that it had started its work.

The board would set a new minimum wage within the next one to two months, Tarique said expressing hope that it would help improve workers' livelihoods.

Referring to the garment industry's development over the past five decades, he said the sector had become a major source of foreign earnings and employment for millions of men and women.

The Prime Minister called on everyone to work together, saying, “Our goal and objective should be one — work first, Bangladesh first.”

He also pledged to reopen closed mills and factories and encourage fresh domestic and foreign investment to create jobs, saying the government plans to establish thousands of industries stretching from the southwestern region to Panchagarh in the north.

He said the government wanted to restore Khulna's former identity as an industrial hub and extend industrial development across Khulna, Bagerhat, Chuadanga and other neglected areas.

“We want to establish thousands of industries from this region all the way to Panchagarh so that people can find employment and the lives of people in these neglected areas can improve,” Tarique said.

He said reopening closed mills and factories would be accompanied by efforts to encourage local and foreign investors to set up new industrial units.

Tarique addressed the rally while travelling by road from Mongla to Khulna after attending programmes at Mongla Port. He spoke at Katakhali before visiting the shrine of Hazrat Khan Jahan Ali (RA) in Bagerhat.

Earlier in the day, Tarique attended the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Invest Bangladesh and China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) on economic and infrastructure cooperation in Mongla.

He also laid the foundation stone of the Mongla Port expansion and modernisation project.

After the Katakhali rally, he visited the shrine of Hazrat Khan Jahan Ali (R) in Bagerhat and was scheduled to attend the inauguration of Notun Kuri Sports Season 2 in Khulna.