President Abdul Hamid on Thursday urged the world’s youth to follow the ideals and works of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and serve their countries and people just like the great statesman did.

The President was speaking at the launching ceremony of the Bangabandhu Global Youth Leadership Award in a virtual manner.

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The award has been introduced to recognize the efforts and achievements of the youth of Bangladesh and their global counterparts in different fields. 

He also said that naming this event after Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman itself serves a meaningful purpose.

"I consider myself very fortunate that I was a close aide of the Father of the Nation and was a part of his journey. As we are celebrating the birth centenary of this great man and the golden jubilee of our independence, I would urge the youth of the world to take lessons from the ideals and works of Bangabandhu and devote yourself to serve your respective country and its people, just like Bangabandhu did," he said.

Recognising the contribution of youth in all sectors, Hamid said the key factor that has been helping the government to achieve all the successes is the youth taking the responsibilities and making contributions in all sectors. 

Bangladesh is now enjoying a demographic dividend as one-third of its total population is a youth force.  The President said that the government, especially the ministry of youth and sports, has been relentlessly working to utilize the potentials of this huge youth force and to accomplish the vision of making Bangladesh a developed nation.

Mentioning the continuous fight of the whole world including Bangladesh against the Corona pandemic, Hamid said that the Government of Bangladesh has been making all-out efforts to contain the Corona situation. Arrangements have been made to bring all the citizens of the country under vaccination in phases.

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 "Despite the negative impact of the pandemic on the world economy, due to the timely and courageous steps taken by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the government has been able to maintain the economic growth by countering the effects of Corona," he also said.

Foreign Minister A. K. Abdul Momen, State minister for Youth and Sports Zahid Ahsan Russel, President of Islamic Cooperation Youth Forum (ICYF)  Taha Ayhan and Senior Secretary of Youth and Sports ministry Akhter Hossain also spoke in the programme.