Despite progress on Global Goals, Bangladesh faces ‘new wave of terrorism,’ Prime Minister tells UN
Addressing the United Nations General Assembly, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, today said that her country has already mainstreamed most Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into its national development plans.
A platform under the supervision of the Prime Minister has been created to coordinate and monitor the work. Consultations are ongoing with the local governments, civil society, media and academia.
“These are in tandem with our ‘Vision-2021’ and ‘Vision-2041,’ towards realizing the dream of the Father of the nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, to build a hunger-, poverty-, illiteracy- and exploitation-free ‘Sonar Bangladesh’ – the Golden Bangladesh,” Sheikh Hasina said during the Assembly’s annual general debate.
The political will behind the 2030 Agenda needs to be translated into concrete and meaningful support for countries that are lagging behind, she insisted. In order to catch up, the developing world needs access to transformative technologies. The internationally agreed development commitments for the least developed countries (LDCs) must be fulfilled to pave the way for their graduation.
The UN-backed Technology Bank for LDCs should be geared at promoting innovation and predictable resource flow, she said, noting that her country’s aim is to build an inclusive, empowered, digital and knowledge-based society. The Government has set up about 10,000 digital centres across the country taking some 200 different services to people’s doorsteps.
Health services through mobile phones and a 24-hour web-portal are complementing the work of 16,438 community and local clinics. Digital laboratories and multi-media classrooms are operating in a growing number of educational institutions.
Turning to terrorism, she said, as a victim of terrorist attacks herself, she has a ‘zero tolerance’ approach to terrorism and violent extremism. The Government did succeed in disintegrating the home-grown terrorist groups, plugging their regular financing pipelines, and flushing out the regional operatives from its territory. But with the vicious rise of certain international terrorist entities, it appears some of the local fringe elements have drawn inspiration and managed to regroup and rebrand themselves, she added.
Recalling that a little more than two months ago, home-grown terrorists killed 20 people at a Dhaka restaurant, she said: “we are now in battle with this new wave of terrorism,” undertaking massive programs to awaken people against radicalization and stand against militancy and extremism.
Bangladesh will carry on promoting a culture of peace at the heart of the UN’s agenda and it will support global peacekeeping and peacebuilding efforts. Its decision to set up a Peacebuilding Centre in Dhaka will allow her country to share its experience with other countries emerging from conflicts, she said.
Sheikh Hasina is among the many leaders who will address the general debate of 71st General Assembly. The Assembly's high-level segment opened this year with the adoption Monday of the New York Declaration as the outcome of the first-ever UN Summit for Refugees and Migrants. Made up of all the 193 Member States of the United Nations, the Assembly provides a forum for multilateral discussion of international issues covered by the UN Charter.