Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday urged the foreign buyers to increase the price of Bangladeshi garment products, saying this money would be spent for further welfare of the country’s four million RMG workers, reports BSS. The Prime Minister came up with the request when Dutch Ambassador to Bangladesh Gerben de Jong paid a farewell call on her at her office in the capital yesterday morning. After the meeting, PM’s Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim briefed reporters. Spelling out her government’s steps for the welfare of the RMG workers, the Prime Minister said her administration has increased the wages of the RMG workers over 200 per cent in the last six years. “Besides, we are setting up dormitories for the female garment workers,” she said. While talking about concern of different countries about Bangladesh’s garment sector issue, the Prime Minister lauded the role of the Netherlands to this end. “The Netherlands never put pressure on Bangladesh in this regard,” she said. Pointing out women empowerment in Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina said job opportunity is being created for the females side by side with their education. Putting emphasis on increasing connectivity, the Prime Minister mentioned her government’s initiative for setting up Paira Port in Patuakhali side by side with existing ports in Chittagong and Mongla. “The Paira Port would help increase connectivity, and the neighbouring countries could use the Paira Port side by side with Chittagong and Mongla,” she said. Expressing satisfaction over the existing friendly ties between Bangladesh and the Netherlands, the Prime Minister said the ties have reached to a new dimension during the tenure of the Dutch ambassador. The Dutch envoy highly appreciated Bangladesh’s tremendous development in RMG sector, saying that Bangladesh’s target of earning US Dollar 50 billion from the sector by 2021 is possible. Gerben expressed his country’s eagerness to develop Bangladesh’s ports. He also showed his country’s interest in exchanging cooperation in the fields of agriculture, horticulture, livestock and land reclamation. “There are many areas through which Bangladesh and the Netherlands could cooperate each other,” he said. The Dutch envoy highly praised Bangladesh’s impressive success in cricket, especially one-day cricket.
