Prime Minister Tarique Rahman on Thursday said the people will unitedly give a befitting reply, as they did in 2024, to those conspiring to destroy the country’s industries.
In this context, he assured workers that a new minimum wage will be fixed for them within a month or two.
“We will stand against the conspirators with all our strength, together with the people of the country, the working people and our brothers and sisters among the workers. Just as the people of Bangladesh gave them a befitting reply in 2024, they will be given a befitting reply in the same way in the days ahead.,” he said.
The prime minister was addressing a roadside meeting at Katakhali intersection on the Khulna-Mongla highway at 12:30 pm, on his way to visit the mazar of Hazrat Khan Jahan Ali (R) in Bagerhat.
Tarique Rahman said the people’s government has been established and has taken up work and plans to change the fate of the general masses, but the conspirators want to derail them.
“The people and the country’s workers must stand up against these conspiracies so that the conspirators get no opportunity in any way. Now is the time to build our country and change the fate of our people,” he said.
Warning the conspirators, the premier said, “We will give a befitting reply to these conspirators with all our strength, Inshallah. Our goal is one: ‘Let us work, build the country, Bangladesh first’ (Korbo Kaj, Gorbo Desh; Sobar Agee Bangladesh).”
Tarique Rahman said those who had failed to improve people's living conditions over the past 15-16 years, deprived them of their voting rights and siphoned off the country's wealth abroad were forced to flee following the mass uprising on August 5, 2024.
“They (ousted forces) are now pulling strings from across the border and trying to create disorder and chaos in the country. Not only that, they are about to destroy the country’s mills and factories,” he said.
Tarique Rahman said the mills and factories are the wealth of the people and of the country’s workers. “If they are destroyed, the working people will be the first to suffer. My brothers and sisters among the workers will suffer the most, and their children’s future will be ruined,” he said.
On the wage board, the prime minister said the elected government is working day and night to solve the country’s problems and expand industry and trade so that people can live well.
“We know the workers have made some demands about their wages. You have seen that we have already formed a wage board to consider those demands,” he said.
The wage board has already started work and will fix a new minimum wage within a month or two, he said, so that workers can live even better.
The prime minister said BNP had promised, if it formed the government, to create jobs, reopen closed public and private mills and factories, and encourage local and foreign investors to set up new industries.
“We will try to reopen the mills and factories that have been shut down across the country at different times, especially the public ones. Alongside that, we will encourage investors at home and abroad to set up new mills and factories, because we want to create employment for the country’s young people,” he said.
Recalling that Khulna was once one of the country’s leading industrial regions, he said many of its factories have closed over time for various reasons.
The government wants to set up thousands of factories, from the south-west, including Khulna, Bagerhat, Kushtia and Chuadanga, to Panchagarh in the north, added the premier.
Earlier in the morning, the prime minister attended the signing ceremony of an MoU on economic and infrastructure cooperation between Invest Bangladesh and China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC), a Chinese state-owned company, in Mongla, and later laid the foundation stone of the Mongla Port expansion and modernization project.
After the roadside meeting, he visited the mazar of Hazrat Khan Jahan Ali (R) in Bagerhat and also attend the opening ceremony of Notun Kuri Sports (Season-2) at the Khulna District Stadium in the afternoon.
