The Embassy of Bangladesh in the Hague has organized Development Fair with festivity and enthusiasm. To make the participants aware about the tremendous success Bangladesh achieved in last ten years, Bangladesh Embassy hold a discussion session today. Apart from a large number of Bangladesh expatriate community, former Dutch Ambassador to Bangladesh H.E. Ms. Leoni Cuelenaere, Mr. Jan de Boer, Senior Policy Officer (Bangladesh), Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ms. Trix van Hoof, Country Programme Manager of Nuffic, the Dutch government agency responsible for internationalization of education through scholarships, trainings in the Netherlands were present in the development fair.
From Embassy, Mr. Kazi Russel Pervez, Counsellor presented a presentation on Bangladesh: a success story for MDGs and dreamer for SDGs. Ms. Catharien Terwisscha van Scheltinga, senior researcher at Wageningen Environmental Research presented on Progress in Water Management and Climate Change in Bangladesh, Bangladeshi IT expert and Research scientist presented on The Evolution on the Information and Communication Technology: in the context of Bangladesh and the Netherlands and Bangladeshi PhD student at Wageningen University presented on Status of Aquaculture and Fisheries of Bangladesh: Achievements, Challenges, and Prospects . Later, representative of Nuffic delivered a speech on their future planning about Bangladeshi students
.In her speech, as special guest, H.E. Leoni explained that during her tenure in Bangladesh as Dutch Ambassador, she witnessed overwhelming progress of Bangladesh in every sectors, especially in socio-economic sectors. The combination of the hardworking people of Bangladesh, creative youthful generation and effective and timely initiatives of the government are key reasons behind this success story. Highlighting Bangladesh Delta Plan- 2100 as a landmark project, H.E. Leoni described few other sectors in which Dutch government is actively engaged in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh Ambassador to the Netherlands, H.E. Sheikh Mohammed Belal stated that, Bangladesh has achieved a lot under the able leadership of the Hon’ble Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, now the country is considered as a role model of development. The country has aspiration to be a middle-income country by 2021 and a developed country by 2041. Besides that, the country is pursuing to attain SDGs. But this process has no end, as a responsible national, we all have to contribute from our respective position to take this development journey in a newer height. From a agriculture based country, Bangladesh joined the club of satellite countries.
Ambassador Belal urged to the members of Bangladesh community to join their hands to accomplish the dream of poverty and hunger free ‘Golden Bengal’ of the father on the nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. After our independence, few countries titled us as bottomless basket; however, with all its limitations Bangladesh being a humane country, hosting one million Rohingya. He also highlighted on women empowerment and specially on educational advancement of Bangladesh.
Ambassador Belal thanked the Government of the Netherlands to cooperate us in Dutch- Bangla flagship project, which is ‘Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100.’ No doubt, this hundred year plan and Dutch technical support will make our delta safe and sustainable. He also thanked the presenters, who presented Bangladesh’s achievement in specific sectors and through them today’s audience could get an overview of these sectors.
As representative of Bangladesh community, Mr. Bikash Chowdhury Barua and Dr. Nahid Hasan urged to the other members of the community to remain engaged in development works of Bangladesh using their acquired knowledge. Representatives of Bangladesh expatriate community also participated in open discussion, highlighted about different sectoral development of Bangladesh and mentioned how it can be further enhanced.
Bangladesh expatriate community expressed their satisfaction for organizing Development Fair which gave them a thorough idea about this development spree. In the fair various development related video clips were displayed, renowned singer Ms. Pranja Bhattacharya and members of Bangladesh community presented musical performances and the guests were entertained with Bangladeshi lunch.