DHAKA: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina asked the Navy to protect the maritime boundary as well as to ensure maximum utilisation of the country’s marine resources.

She told the Navy while conferring BNS Osman the award of ‘National Standard’ on Saturday morning in Chittagong.

The PM awarded the ship as it has earned fame for its outstanding services in the naval force at home and abroad for the past 25 years.

It has recently returned home after completing its 4-year service in the UN Peacekeeping Mission in Lebanon.

The premier said that about 3 crore people along the country’s 710-km coastal area are directly or indirectly dependent on the sea to maintain their livelihood.

Sea-routes are used in the country to maintain about 90 percent of country’s trade, she mentioned.

Navy should be prepared to play an important role to ensure the safe and secured communication as well as the extraction of resources.

The premier also upheld her incumbent government’s programs to modernize the Navy.

Earlier on the day, Navy Chief Vice Admiral M Farid Habib, NDC, PSC received the Prime Minister as she arrived in Chittagong.

It was followed by a smartly turned out contingent of Navy guard of honor to the PM.

Cabinet members, chief of Bangladesh Air Force, local parliament members, diplomats, distinguished persons and senior civil and military officials, among others, were present at the event.

However, BNS Osman, a multipurpose guided missile frigate, was commissioned in Bangladesh Navy in 1989. The ship has huge contribution to safeguard the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country.

It has participated in more than five hundred exercises at home and abroad and trained 445 BN officers and sailors.

** PM reaches at Ctg

BDST: 1352 HRS, OCT 11, 2014