“We've friendly relations with all. Now, Bangladesh has no hostile relation with anyone as it follows the foreign policy adopted by Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman....this is why Bangladesh is marching forward and receiving investment,” she said referring to Bangladesh’s friendly relations with both China and India.
The Prime Minister made the remarks while addressing a civic reception accorded to her at Legendale Hotel here.
Expatriate Bangladeshis hosted the reception under the supervision of Bangladesh Embassy in Beijing on the occasion of the Prime Minister's bilateral official visit to China.
Sheikh Hasina said Bangladesh has moving forward following the policy – ‘Friendship to all and malice to none’, which had been taken by the Father of the Nation.
“If there’s any stable government and democratic environment, it can attract investment,” she said, adding that her government is setting up 100 special economic zones in the country.
Noting that China turned into the world’s 2nd largest economy from a poor one in the last 70 years, the Prime Minister urged expatriate Bangladeshis to learn from the China’s history and development.
She said China still faces obstacles as many will not want to see a country from this region or Asia to be the largest economy in the world.
Mentioning that Bangabandhu had been taking the country forward with 7 percent GDP growth by building a war-ravaged country within only three and a half years, she said the anti-liberation forces hindered the development journey of the country.
Though the killers of the Father of the Nation were tried, those who had been behind the killing and its conspirators are yet to be identified, Sheikh Hasina, also the eldest daughter of Bangabandhu, said.
She said time will come when the true facts (behind the killing) come to the fore.
About the country’s development in the last one decade, Sheikh Hasina said the country’s GDP growth is now 8.10 percent and her government passed the Tk 523,190-crore budget for 2019-20 fiscal year recently.
Criticising the anti-liberation forces, she said those who had not wanted the independence of Bangladesh and kept the country crippled never find anything good of the government.
There is still a class of people in the country who are blind and who do not like democratic environment as they are evaluated during the period of martial law or emergency period or illegal regimes, not in a democratic environment, the Prime Minister said. ”They always remain ready to sell themselves.”
Noting that this class of people was in power for 29 years, she said, “We did the development in the 10 years what they didn’t do in the 29 years.”
Sheikh Hasina said the government has taken development projects of some Tk 200,000 crore for the current fiscal year and 90 percent of the country’s development budget is implemented with own finance. “The share of foreign donation is 0.8 percent in the country's budget,” she added.
She urged the expatriate Bangladeshis to work for the country coming up with innovative ideas.
Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen also spoke at the event conducted by Bangladesh Ambassador to China Md Fazlul Karim. Among expatriate Bangladeshis, Engineer Shamsul Haque spoke on the occasion.
The Prime Minister arrived in Beijing on Wednesday morning after joining the World Economic Forum's (WEF) Annual Meeting of New Champions, 2019 held in Dalian city.
Sheikh Hasina departed from Dhaka for China on July 1 and is scheduled to leave here for Dhaka on July 6.