EU Ambassador Terms Ongoing Violence as Barbaric and Tragic

The new EU ambassador came up with the remarks during courtesy call on with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her Tejgaon office here today.

Briefing the reporters after the meeting, PM's Deputy Press Secretary Nazrul Islam said the EU ambassador informed the Prime Minister of the visit of a EU delegation to the Burn Unit of the Dhaka Medical College Hospital yesterday (Tuesday) saying "it was very much saddened to see the pain and sufferings of the burn victims."

"We're very saddened. How could a human being act like this? It's a barbaric and tragic act," added Nazrul as Pierre Mayaudon was saying.

In this connection, the Prime Minister highlighted the background of the last general election held on January 5, 2014 and said the poll was held as per the constitution.

Before that election, Sheikh Hasina said the government had made all-out efforts to bring all political parties. In view of this the government had formed an all-party interim government.

In that government, the Prime Minister said BNP was given offer of the Home Ministry. But, the party did not participate in the election as its cohort Jamaat-e-Islami was disqualified for election by the Election Commission.

Sheikh Hasina said that over the last one year, the country was progressing in all sectors and in all economic indicators in terms of GDP growth and poverty reduction.

But, she said, BNP started the sudden violence in the name of agitation without any reason. In the name of movement they are burning innocent people to death and hurling petrol bombs which are not political activities at all.

"The activities of BNP-Jamaat are rather terrorist act like the IS, a middle east based terrorist group," she said adding even the pregnant women and the children are not spared from their violence.

Terming EU as a trusted economic partner of Bangladesh, the EU ambassador said an initiative has been taken to form a new forum namely 'EU Business Council Bangladesh' to strengthen business partnership with EU.

Pierre Mayaudon appreciated the Bangladesh government's concept of 'Blue Economy' and said EU is ready to share its expertise and experiences in this field to help Bangladesh tapping the huge potentials of its marine resources.

Lauding Bangladesh's progress in materializing 'Digital Bangladesh', he said that the EU could also share their experience with Bangladesh in this regard alongside sharing expertise support with satellite.

The Prime Minister said her government has already established some 5,272 Digital Centres at Union Level which has paved the ways of creating more employment opportunities side by side curbing corruption, ensuring transparency and reaching the services to the doorsteps of common people.

Regarding the bright prospect of the country's RMG sector, the EU ambassador said Bangladesh's goal to increase the RMG exports to US$ 50 billion by 2021 is quite achievable. EU is ready to provide necessary support in this regard, the envoy said.

The EU ambassador also told the Prime Minister that they are interested to provide support in developing the countrywide inland waterways as this mode of transport is very cheap in Bangladesh and environment-friendly as well as could generate more employment opportunities.

In this regard, the Prime Minister said Bangladesh needs support to maintain the navigability of the rivers since siltation fill up the river beds.

PM's Principal Secretary Abdus Sobhan Sikder and officials of the EU mission in Bangladesh were present.