During a recent visit to South Africa, Honourable Prime Minister (HPM) Sheikh Hasina said she has a dream to turn Bangladesh into a trillion-dollar economy, urging the South African investors to come up with robust investment particularly in the ICT, infrastructure, textiles and tourism. "I have a dream; the 170 million people of Bangladesh have a dream. And that is, to become a trillion-dollar economy and a fully developed smart nation by 2041," she said. In pursuit of achieving the dream, the premier said they have embarked on an ambitious endeavour aimed at setting down long-term objectives for prosperity and advancement. Moreover, the premier said that BRICS is a platform which may open new doors for some countries towards development with some countries will be able to move forward through this platform.

US Congressman Andrew R Garbarino has extoled the economic progress Bangladesh has achieved in the last 14 years under the leadership of HPM Sheikh Hasina, saying it can be an example for the rest of the world. According to the envo, Garbarino said Bangladesh’s general election would be held in January, and HPM Sheikh Hasina had given the responsibility of the electoral process to an independent commission to ensure that the polls were fair, impartial and acceptable to the international community,. “All I can say is that I hope the growth Bangladesh has seen with its economy, what it is doing with its energy, what it is doing with its infrastructure and what it has done to combat extremism and terrorism… if it continues, I think Bangladesh should be an example after what it has accomplished to other nations.”

The 19th anniversary of the grenade attack on an anti-terrorism rally of the then opposition party Awami League in the capital on August 21 in 2004 was observed paying tributes to martyrs. On this day in 2004 during the BNP-Jamaat coalition government, this attack was carried out on a peaceful anti-terrorism rally in front of Awami League's Bangabandhu Avenue central office in the capital. The party leaders and activists formed a human shield to protect the then opposition leader and incumbent premier Sheikh Hasina. Bangabandhu's daughter HPM Sheikh Hasina survived the infernal grenade attack that day. As Sheikh Hasina, the main target of the assassins, survived, 12 rounds of bullets were shot at her car while she was hurriedly being taken away to safer place from the scene

A new initiative has been rolled out to construct climate and disaster resilient small-scale water resources infrastructures as well as strengthening those in a bid to reduce risk of flooding to some 87,000 hectares of land and boosting agricultural productivity in the country. Through the materialization of the new schemes, the risk of flooding would be reduced while land would be developed and reclaimed through rehabilitation and modernization of the Bakkhali Rubber Dam in Cox's Bazar. The project operations will also feature water management, water supply, irrigation infrastructures, excavation and re-excavation of canals, constructing regulators and embankments for protecting crops.

The government has undertaken a project for the development of various infrastructures including roads of city corporations and municipalities of the country. The main objective of the project is to improve the quality of life of the people through the development of various infrastructures and roads, which will help boost the country’s economy. Besides, the project is to improve transport connectivity, maintenance operations and road safety for road users on selected sections of the national roads network and improve road network management.

The recently launched Universal pension scheme (UPS) has been drawing a good response from people within its first four days of inauguration. In the meantime, 5500 people have deposited the first installment of their pension. The total amount was about Tk2.75 crore. The government launched the universal pension scheme for the first time in the country to protect the 85% people of the society engaged in the low income and informal sector. HPM Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the much-talked-about Universal Pension Scheme to bring all the people of the country aged above 18 under the scheme, so that they can enjoy a lifetime pension facility after age 60.

The neighboring Bangladesh and India are keen to work together to deal with cyber threats. To this end, the two countries agreed to jointly conduct cyber drills and capacity building workshops. The information was disclosed in a bilateral meeting between Dr Sanjay Bahl, director general of Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) under the Ministry of Electronics and IT of Government of India, and Bangladesh State Minister for ICT Division Zunaid Ahmed Palak. On the same day, the state minister visited the office of BLS International Services Limited, an Indian outsourcing service provider for government and diplomatic missions worldwide, and inspected the operations of its Customer Service Center located at Geeta Nagar, New Delhi, the release added.

The Election Commission (EC) has decided to provide smart National Identity (NID) cards for Bangladeshi expatriates living in the United Kingdom (UK) and Saudi Arabia on a priority basis after registering them into the voter list. The programme is now being run in the UAE and now the Ministry of Foreign Affairs requested responsible authorities to start work in two more countries -- the UK and Saudi Arabia. According to media reports, efforts are on to provide the NID services for the Bangladeshi expatriates in the UK and Saudi Arabia before the next general election due by January.