Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today sought more support from development partners to maintain the country’s development spree and make it sustainable, urging them not to impose so many conditions in this regard.

“We’ve taken many measures for further development of the country and we hope that our development partners will continue to extend their assistance by not giving so many conditions so that we can complete all our programmes smoothly,” she told the inaugural session of the Bangladesh Development Forum (BDF) at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in Dhaka this morning.

“To make the [development] work durable, economic solvency is a must, and in this case, I think our development partners will come forward and extend support [to us],” she said.

The Economic Relations Division (ERD) under the Ministry of Finance has organised the two-day flagship event to highlight the formulation of the ensuing eighth Five Year Plan and the ways forward to attaining the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) before the development partners.

The slogan of the forum is “Effective Partnership for Sustainable Development”.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal presided over the inaugural session of the forum.

Senior Vice President of JICA Junichi Yamada, Vice President of World Bank for the South Asian region Hartwig Schafer and Vice President of Asian Development Bank Shixin Chen also spoke at the event.

UN Resident Coordinator and Co-chair of Local Consultative Group Mia Seppo and ERD Secretary and also Co-chair of Local Consultative Group Monowar Ahmad delivered the welcome remarks.

Cabinet members, PM’s advisers, parliament members, foreign diplomats and representatives of international development partners, and civil and military officials attended the inaugural function.

Seeking more cooperation from the developed countries and development partners in combating climate change, Sheikh Hasina said, “We get many commitments from developed countries in this regard. But no one fulfils the pledges.”

“So we’ve formed a trust fund on our own to check the adverse impacts of climate change,” she said.

Sheikh Hasina said countries like Bangladesh are not responsible for climate change. “But we’re going to be the worst victims of climate change,” she said.

“That’s why those, who are responsible for it, should make the highest contributions to fight climate change,” she opined.