The people of Bangladesh will no longer be misled but will move forward and change their own fortunes as well as the country’s, Prime Minister Tareque Rahman has said. Now is the time to work for the people and take the country forward, he said, and for that everyone must work, toil and play a part in the country’s development.
The prime minister made the remarks on Sunday in a speech at a rehabilitation programme for flood victims at Baharchhara on the Banshkhali coast in Chattogram.
At the event, held on the grounds of Banshkhali High School and College, he handed keys to new homes to 100 families made homeless by floods and distributed relief among those affected. In his speech he also outlined the government’s long-term plans for the health, energy and economic sectors. Finance Minister Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury and Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed also spoke.
Saying the country could no longer be held back, the prime minister said many countries once lagged behind Bangladesh but, through work and effort, took their nations far ahead. Bangladesh must move down that path too, with one goal — improving people’s living standards and changing the country’s fortunes.
Presenting the Chattogram coast as a major opportunity for economic development, the prime minister said he had gone to Matarbari that day to plan how the sea could be used to improve people’s lives, and how mills and factories could be set up from Mirsarai to Matarbari to create jobs and business for people.
On Chinese investment, the prime minister said he had spoken with investors during a visit to China, where there are plans to build several hundred mills and factories. Through these, people across Chattogram would get work, reducing unemployment and creating opportunities to earn foreign currency.
To improve healthcare, the prime minister announced that 50-bed upazila-level hospitals would be upgraded to 100 beds within the next five years.
Outlining the government’s responsibilities, the prime minister said it had begun implementing the promises the BNP made to the people during the election. Stressing jobs for the young, he said employment must be arranged for everyone, men and women alike. He called on all to work for the country’s development rather than sit and wait, saying agricultural output must be raised and industry and jobs created to move the economy forward.
“We want to turn the hands of every person in Bangladesh into working hands, so that each can play a part in building the country and change their own and their family’s fortunes through their own labour,” Tareque Rahman said.
The prime minister said a “family card” initiative had been taken to make women self-reliant. The pilot project, begun within a month of the government taking office, is complete, and the programme starts on 16 August; in the 2026-27 fiscal year about 4.1 million (41 lakh) families across Bangladesh would receive the card. He said 10,000 to 12,000 families in the Banshkhali area would get family cards, with the programme running for the next four years.
He said salt farmers would also come under the farmer-card scheme, not only rice and vegetable growers, and that a price for salt had been set after discussion to help salt farmers become self-reliant, to be announced shortly.
The prime minister also stressed maintaining peace and order for jobs and industrialisation, saying local and foreign investors could not be encouraged to set up mills and factories amid disorder, which would obstruct investment and business.
On the recent Banshkhali floods, he said many homes had been destroyed; keys to new homes were handed to 100 destitute families, others were given financial help, and some destitute women were given rice. He also announced a plan to build an embankment to protect Banshkhali’s coastal people, saying the work would begin.
After the Banshkhali programme, the prime minister left by helicopter for Fatikchhari in Chattogram, where he was due to meet Hefazat-e-Islam Amir Allama Shah Muhibbullah at the Al-Jamiatul Islamia Azizul Uloom Babunagar madrasa.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report