UNITED NATIONS, Sept 27 (BSS): Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina urged the United Nations on Saturday to play the central role as the custodian of global peace, security and development saying the evil forces destroying secular fabrics of the nations should be eliminated.
Expressing her grave concern over volatile global security situation and emergence of religious militancy and violent extremism, she said the volatile global security situation continues to pose significant challenge to international development.
Sheikh Hasina said: "Threat to peace anywhere is a threat for entire humanity. We cannot achieve sustainable development in the absence of durable peace and security."
Addressing the 69th session of the United Nations General Assembly, the Prime Minister said Bangladesh strongly believes in the centrality and legitimacy of the UN as the custodian of global peace, security and development.
Sheikh Hasina said terrorism and extremism remain major impediments to global peace and development. Bangladesh maintains a 'zero-tolerance' policy to all forms of terrorism, violent extremism, radicalisation and religion-based politics, she said.
"We remain firm in our resolve not to allow any terrorist individual or entity to use our territory against any state," she added.
Saying that anti-liberation forces continue to remain active in destroying the progressive and secular fabric of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina said, the evil forces resorted to religious militancy and violent extremism in every opportunity.
Sheikh Hasina said her government remains pledge-bound to bring to justice the culprits of war crimes in 1971 to uphold peace and rule of law and end a culture of impunity.
The highly transparent, impartial and independent International Crimes Tribunals (ICT) of Bangladesh have already completed trials of a few key criminals who perpetrated heinous crimes against humanity during our Liberation War in 1971.
"We look towards international community's full appreciation of the aspirations of our people for this long-awaited justice," she said.
Sheikh Hasina said Bangladesh government is entrenching democracy, secularism and women's empowerment to ideologically defeat terrorism and extremism.
"We have also significantly enhanced transparency and accountability in governance by strengthening our Election, Anti-Corruption, Human Rights and Information Commissions," she said.
Sheikh Hasina said the 69th session of the UNGA is being held at a time when the global development discourse is at an important juncture, as the implementation of MDGs approaches its deadline and the global community is engaged in framing a transformative development agenda for 2016-2030.
Pointing out her government's people-centric vision to transform Bangladesh into a knowledge-based, technology-driven Middle Income Country by 2021, the Prime Minister said Bangladesh government has integrated the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) into the national five-year plans and 'Vision 2021' to achieve the goal.
She highlighted Bangladesh's success in attaining MDGs saying Bangladesh has already met or, is on track to meet MDGs-1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. Poverty has been reduced from 57 per cent in 1991 to below 25 per cent.
During the last five years, she said, average GDP growth remained 6.2 per cent despite global recession, export earnings grown up more than 3 times from around US$10.53 billion in 2006 to over US$ 30.5 billion last fiscal.
Remittance flow also increased nearly three times from US$ 5 billion in 2006 to US$ 14.5 billion while foreign reserve jumped by 6.5-fold from US$ 3.49 billion in 2006 to US $ 22 billion at present, she said.
Sheikh Hasina said, Bangladesh has undertaken some massive infrastructure and connectivity projects in order to unlock development potentials. The projects include a 6.15 km bridge over the mighty river Padma with own resources, development of a Deep Sea Port in Sonadia, Chittagong. Upgrading the road and rail infrastructures, including expressways and river tunnels, is underway, she said.
In this regard, the Prime Minister mentioned agreements signed with friendly countries- India, China and Japan - to develop large scale power plants to meet the growing demand by 2021.
She said, eighteen Economic Zones (EZs) are being developed across the country to allow potential investors to invest in Bangladesh especially in the context of growing integration into the regional connectivity framework.
Bangladesh enjoys a clear demographic dividend with two-thirds young employable workforce to remain economically active till 2031. It is a policy imperative for us to invest in skill development of our increasingly younger population.
Sheikh Hasina said the government has taken initiatives for rapid infrastructure development and people's capability building in contemporary ICTs to establish a knowledge-based society.
She said people are receiving over 200 types of services from over 4,500 Union Services and Information Centers (USIC). Rural people are getting access to health care services from over 15,000 IT-connected Community Health Clinics and Union Health Centers.
These networks allowing people get various crucial public services at their doorstep at affordable cost. Bangladesh has 117 million SIMs with more than 78% tele-penetration and 50 million internet connections, she said.
The Prime Minister said Bangladesh is striving to reach the MDG targets of ensuring universal primary school enrolment and gender parity in primary and secondary schools. The Government is providing students with free education up to 12th grade, she said.Sheikh Hasina said about 12.8 million students of poor families are getting monthly stipend while about 7.8 million primary-level students and four million students from secondary to graduate level are enjoying government education support.