On this very auspicious occasion of the 47th Independence and National Day of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, I convey my heartfelt congratulations and warm greetings to our respected members of Bangladesh community living in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
On this auspicious occasion, I would like to pay my deep respect to the father of the nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who led the nation to achieve Independence through a glorious War of Liberation in 1971.
I also pay tribute to all the valiant freedom fighters for their supreme sacrifices for independence of our motherland.
My deep respect is to the martyrs of liberation war and all those millions of people who withstood all the sufferings in the war of liberation.
I would like to take this opportunity to express our deepest gratitude to King Salman for his generous support for Bangladesh.
I would like to extend our deep gratitude and appreciation to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is also deputy premier and defense minister of the Kingdom, for his relentless efforts to modernize Saudi Arabia with pragmatic social and economic reforms which would pave the way to realize Saudi Arabia’s “Vision 2030.”
We are happy and proud to inform that on the eve of our Independence and National Day, the UN declared on March 15, 2018, that Bangladesh has met the graduation criteria from the LDC (Lower Developing Country) category to developing country.
This is certainly a joyous occasion for all Bangladesh nationals home and abroad.
This could be achieved due to the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, as under her able leadership for last nearly a decade Bangladesh followed pragmatic development strategies, which resulted with inclusive economic growth, structural transformation and remarkable social progress. It is pertinent to note that Bangladesh met all three criteria for graduation from LDC, its per capita GNI (gross national income) is $1,610 whereas UN threshold was $1,230, the HAI (human asset index) is 72.9 whereas threshold was 66 and EVI (economic vulnerability index) is 24.8 whereas threshold was 32.
We would also like to express our deep appreciation to the government of Saudi Arabia for extending cooperation in employing more workers in all categories from Bangladesh. The extraordinary kindness and generosity of King Salman and the brotherly people of the Saudi Arabia to Bangladesh are always reverenced by the people and the government of Bangladesh.
We deeply appreciate the government and people of Saudi Arabia for facilitating the Hajj and Umrah pilgrimage with a significant number of our citizens in upcoming Hajj in 2018.
We also thank the government of Saudi Arabia for financing several developments projects in Bangladesh under SFD.
The visits of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to the Kingdom in June 2016 and in May 2017 mark a milestone in the Saudi-Bangladesh relations.
During those visits, the prime minister had fruitful discussions with the king to further intensify relations between the two brotherly nations. The prime minister assured all support and cooperation to Saudi Arabia, including deployment of Bangladeshi soldiers to protect Two Holy sites of Islam as and when asked for.
These excellent relations between Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia may be attributed to the fact that both countries share common perspectives, values and commitments.
Bangladesh has also adopted Vision 2021 (of emergence as a middle income country) and the Vision 2041 (of emergence as a developed country) announced by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, which places Bangladesh to work with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to have synergy in achieving the Vision 2030 of the Kingdom with exploring further opportunity to invest and do business for mutual benefits.
Bangladesh, one of the top troops contributing countries for UN peace keeping operations around the globe, has been playing active role in peace building and promotion of democracy in the war torn countries for the international order for protection and promotion of the interest of all nations.
Bangladesh’s enlightened and forward looking foreign policy had made the country an important role player in the UN, NAM, OIC, Commonwealth and other international and regional organizations.
Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia can work together for global peace and stability through UN and OIC.
Bangladesh will assume the chairmanship of OIC Council of foreign ministers in May 2018, and hope to work with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as well as all OIC member states to move forward the cause of Muslim Ummah with a slogan “Islamic Values for Sustainable Peace, Solidarity and Development.”
We hope to build up our relations on the achievements of these recent productive engagements to set up a future of even closer co-operation and understanding both at the bilateral and multilateral levels between Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia.
We would like to see the peoples of both countries to herald a defining moment of raising our relationship to a new height in the coming days, particularly in the areas of trade, investment, education, health and manpower between the two brotherly countries.
On this day, I would urge upon all the members of Bangladesh Community to contribute with their valuable experiences and support to further accelerate the socio-economic developments of our beloved motherland and to further strengthen the excellent relationship that exists between our two brotherly countries.
Joi Bangla.
Joi Bangabandhu.
Golam Moshi, ambassador of Bangladesh
