FROM HOTEL GRAND HYATT: Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina spread the dreams of her ‘Vision 2021’ to the businesspeople in the USA.

Upholding her dreams of making Bangladesh a mid-income country by 2021 and reaching to a developed country by 2041, the PM invited them to invest in Bangladesh.

Sheikh Hasina made the assertion while attending a lunch hosted by US business organization called Business Council for International Understanding (BCIU) at Imperial Hall of Hotel Grand Hyatt in New York.

She told the audience that she wants to meet them regularly to present the gradual economic changes in materializing her ‘Vision 2021’.

She commented that the relations between Bangladesh and the USA are rooted inside with spirit of universal values and mutual interest.

The values include peace, democracy and secularism, she added, they also include freedom of expression, free media, religious tolerance and women empowerment.

According to her, both the countries aim to annihilate terrorism, fundamentalism and extremism.

Mentioning the latest 2014 data, the PM said that the USA is the second largest country in foreign direct investment (FDI) to Bangladesh.

But it is comparatively lower than the other countries, she said with the expectation that the FDI will exceed a billion dollars by next three years.

Regarding the country’s readymade garments industry, the PM said about 4 million people, mostly women, are involved in this sector. This will ensure women empowerment both in socially and economically.

She also called for more US investment in Bangladesh RMG sector.

Upholding the reforms in Bangladesh labor market in past one year, the PM said that working environment in the country has been improved with a wage increase, better health service and security.

Sheikh Hasina said to the foreign investors that her incumbent government has employed one thousand inspectors to monitor working environment in factories.

On her government’s singing Trade and Investment Cooperation Framework Agreement (TICFA) with the USA in 2013, the PM said that the treaty has made the signing countries for the first time together to work on strategic cooperation.

This treaty is the US government’s recognition to Bangladesh’s economic development materialized by her government in past six years, she remarked.

The premier said that she aims to build Bangladesh as an industrialized mid-income country by 2021 and a developed country by 2041.

With these visions we want to build Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s ‘Sonar Bangla’, she added.

She called the investors to create new opportunities in business as well as to increase their participation.

These will bring Bangladesh and the USA relations to a new height, she added.

Bangladesh finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain, PM’s political affairs adviser HT Imam, economic affairs adviser Dr Mashiur Rahman, state minister for foreign affairs Shahriar Alam, Bangladesh ambassador to the USA Mohammad Ziauddin, PM’s principal secretary Abdus Sobhan Sikder, senior secretary Abul Kalam Azad and Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FBCCI) president Kazi Akram Uddin Ahmed, among others, were present at the program.

BDST: 0120 HRS, SEP 26, 2014