Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday urged the world leaders to come up with utmost sincerity to ensure dignified life and prosperous future for all.

“As equal members of the global family, we must, therefore, resolve to do our utmost for dignified life and prosperous future for all,” she said.

The premier was speaking at the One Family session in the G20 Leaders’ Summit 2023 at Bharat Mandapam Convention Centre at Pragati Maidan here.

In this connection, she made five recommendations to the G20 leaders aiming to make a better world in the coming days, defying all challenges with united efforts.

The recommendations are:

First– Implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development should remain top of the agenda of all multilateral initiatives, including G20.

Second – For countries in transition from LDCs to developing ones, G20 should support and facilitate the continuation of duty-free, quota free market access and extension of unilateral tariff preferences and TRIPS waivers for a significant timeframe after the graduation – to ensure smooth and sustainable transition.

Third – G20 can stand by vulnerable economies keeping their markets open to ensure smooth, timely and predictable supply of essential goods and commodities, including agricultural products.

Fourth– Women, half of the global population, should get equal attention, for building peaceful, just, and inclusive societies, and 

Fifth – Strengthen South-South and Triangular cooperation with support from partners, international financial institutions, private sectors, and other stakeholders for ensuring human development globally.

“Taking the current global economy into account, it is high time to work collectively for a just and fair economic order. I believe that G20 would be supportive to the development process of developing countries,” she said.

PM Hasina said Covid-19 pandemic, sanctions and counter-sanctions have led to worldwide supply chain disruptions, and crises of food, fuel and fertiliser imposing unbearable living conditions on people all over the world.

“Though we talk of one world, one family, are we doing anything to show it? Every night, over 800 million people, or 10 percent of global population, go hungry. Whereas, the world annually spends on military $1.9 trillion, only 5.5 billion for 26 hours of military spending, could ensure food for the most vulnerable,” she said. 

Also, she said, food wasted worldwide annually could feed 2 billion people. 

“Instead, sadly the rich countries are reducing aid for the poor as in the case of the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh,” she added.

Talking about Bangladesh, the prime minister said democracy and people’s fundamental rights returned in 2009. 

“In the following 14 and a half years, Bangladesh witnessed phenomenal socio-economic transformations,” she added.

In this regard, she said the government has been able to reduce poverty from 41.5 percent to 18.7 percent, extreme poverty to 5.6 percent, and the per capita income increased five-fold.

She said implementation of the 2030 Agenda of Sustainable Development remains the topmost priority of Bangladesh. “We adopted a ‘Whole of Society’ approach for implementation and attainment of the SDGs. Bangladesh received the SDG progress Award in 2021.”

She mentioned that Bangladesh has achieved significant progress in universal primary education. Literacy rate has increased from 45 percent in 2006 to 75.6 percent in the last one and a half decade. “Currently, the primary school enrolment rate is 98 percent,” she said.

She said Bangladesh has also achieved remarkable success in the health sector where average life expectancy has increased from 59 years in 2006 to now 73 years. 

“Our infant mortality rate has declined to 21 per thousand from 84 while maternal mortality rate to 161 from 370 per hundred thousand," she said.

She said that 18,500 Community Clinics and rural health centres take healthcare to the doorstep of the rural people. 

The United Nations recognized the endeavor as “the Sheikh Hasina Initiative” by adopting a resolution. We made commendable success in Covid-19 management. 

The premier said Bangladesh is a strong champion of women empowerment. 

According to the Gender gap Index Report – 2022 of the World Economic Forum, Bangladesh is at the top position among South Asian countries.

“We aspire to transform Bangladesh by 2041 into a knowledge-based, modern, developed country, or Sonar Bangla- as envisioned by the Father of the Nation, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman," said PM Hasina.