Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday (Nov 14) expressed her firm conviction to make a poverty-free Bangladesh as hunger has already been eradicated from the country.

“We’ve been able to make the country free from hunger. So, now we’ll have to make it completely poverty-free,” she said while inaugurating the weeklong PKSF Development Fair 2019 at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre, reports UNB.

The Prime Minister said the government is implementing 125 programmes under the social safety net, added the report.

“We’ve been implementing these programmes to strengthen social empowerment. The rural and grassroots people are getting benefits of the programmes,” she said.

Sheikh Hasina said Awami League prepared the action plans to fight poverty even when it was in the opposition.

“I always used to say that our main enemy is poverty. So, we’ll have to fight poverty and make people free from poverty. We prepared the action plans with this goal. We did it when we were in the opposition,” she said.

The PM said poverty rate declined to 21 percent from 41 percent in 2006. “But our goal is to bring down it to at least 15-16 percent so that Bangladesh will not remain poor and can run standing on its own feet. Inshallah, we’ll able to do so,” she said.

PKSF, an apex development organisation, has arranged the seven-day ‘Development Fair-2019’ with a view to expanding the market of products made by marginal people and participants of different programmes of PKSF.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal was present as the special guest at the inaugural function of the fair, while PKSF Chairman Dr Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad presided over it, reports BSS.

At the function, lifetime achievement award was given to former agriculture minister Begum Matia Chowdhury for her outstanding contributions to the development of agriculture, ensuring the welfare of the farmers and alleviating poverty.