Hasina for concerted efforts to fight poverty in South Asia

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday said the South Asian nations have to fight against poverty jointly alongside maintaining good and harmonious relations for their overall development.
"We have to make concerted efforts with our resources to fight poverty as it is the main enemy of the Asian region," she said while talking to reporters on board an air flight on her way back home from Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan.
Hasina went to Bhutan on November 6 on a four-day state visit at the invitation of her Bhutanese counterpart Lyonchen Jigmi Y Thinley.
Describing her visit as fruitful, she said it would play an important role in further strengthening bilateral relations with Bhutan, which recognised Bangladesh as an independent state immediately after the War of Liberation.
Hasina said, "Bhutan is the founding member of Saarc and we have the scope to learn many things from each other."
In this context, she referred to the transformation of Bhutan into a democratic and forward-looking state.
During her visit, Hasina had extensive talks with her Bhutanese counterpart. Entire gamut of bilateral relations, including expansion of bilateral trade and business and the climate change issues, were discussed, she said.
Stressing the need for people-to-people contact to further strengthening the existing friendly relations between the two countries, Hasina said, "We have already talked to India to establish road links with Bhutan and India responded positively."
With the establishment of road connectivity with Bhutan, the two countries would benefit in terms of expansion of trade and business and increasing people-to-people contact, she added.
When asked about joint efforts of generating hydro-electricity, Hasina said the matter came up during the bilateral talks with her Bhutanese counterpart.
"We have to take environmental consequences into consideration while taking any projects," she said, adding that there was a prospect of buying electricity from Bhutan.
Referring to the importance of launching package programmes by Bangladesh and Bhutan for tourists, she said both the countries could be economically benefited as Bhutan has a slivery Himalayas and Bangladesh has golden sandy sea beach, the two most popular tourist attractions.