Socio-economic Development

Unicef assures PM of support

8 June 2010, 18:00 PM

Unb, Dhaka

Unicef Representative in Bangladesh Carel de Rooy calls on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her office in the city yesterday. Photo: PID

United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) has assured of continuing its support and assistance to the government in its endeavor to attain the socio-economic development goals. Unicef Representative in Bangladesh Carel de Rooy gave the assurance when he paid a courtesy call on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the Prime Minister's Office, said the PM's Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad. Eulogising Hasina's visionary leadership in accelerating rural development, the Unicef representative described the government's development programmes as “excellent.” Carel de Rooy expressed his strong hope that the government under the active leadership of Hasina will be able to ensure safe and improved living standards for children and mothers across the country. In this regard, Hasina said her government is strongly committed to reducing child and maternal mortality to a great extent. The Unicef representative appreciated the government's programmes for creating a social safety net. “Unicef will continue to cooperate with your government to attain the objective of social safety net,” he assured the PM. Thanking the Unicef for its cooperation, Hasina said since assuming the office, the present government is working round the clock to change the fate of the people. “We are giving our maximum efforts to bring full peace and prosperity to our people's lives,” she said. On literacy and education, she said Bangladesh was supposed to completely remove illiteracy from the country by 2006. “Our previous government had increased the literacy rate to 65 percent from 45 percent. But the next government did not continue the progress in the education sector,” she said. Hasina said the government has again chalked out elaborate programmes to build an educated and thoughtful nation. She said for the first time, the government has distributed free textbooks up to secondary level and the students have been given the books in time. On social safety net, Hasina said her government has arranged allowances for elderly women and men. Besides, Employment Bank is working to facilitate the youths with loans to generate employment opportunities for the youths, she said. Refreshing her commitment for further strengthening the country's democracy, she said Bangladesh could not achieve the desired development as democracy here was not allowed to run uninterruptedly in the past. “However, people have elected us and given the charge of working for them. Now we are working hard to fulfill people's expectations,” she said. Hasina said she wants to build Bangladesh as the most peaceful and prosperous nation in the South Asian region. The Unicef representative deeply condoled the death of 119 people in the devastating fire at Nimtoli in old Dhaka. In this regard, Hasina said her government is bearing all medical expenses of the injured and the victim families will be given financial and other assistances by the government.