Justice, equality core philosophy of Bangladesh’s development journey, FM tells USAID chief

The foreign minister has told the USAID global chief that “ensuring justice and equality for all” is the core philosophy of the current government’s development journey.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 30 August 2015, 06:05 PM
Updated : 31 August 2015, 06:13 PM

Acting administrator of the US’s development arm Alfonso Lenhardt, who has been visiting Dhaka since Friday, met Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali at his office on Sunday.
 
Ali said Bangladesh “greatly values” the existing bilateral engagements with the US government in all areas.
 
Lenhardt congratulated the government on accomplishing “enviable successes” in attaining many of the MDG goals, particularly in the areas of health and women empowerment, the foreign ministry said. 
 
He also shared his experience of visiting a community clinic in a remote village in Bagerhat district. 
He applauded Bangladesh’s “tremendous progress” in the health sector both in terms of “quality of services as well as grass-root level coverage”. 
 
The USAID earlier said Lenhardt came to Dhaka to see the US-funded projects.
 
During the meeting with the foreign minister, he also discussed the new post-2015 sustainable development goals.
 
Ali said the new goals would offer “new opportunities to work together with the USAID in a wide range of development fields”. 
 
Lenhardt assured him of remaining “deeply engaged” with Bangladesh in that new journey.
 
US Ambassador Marcia Bernicat and USAID Mission Director Janina Jaruzelski were present during the meeting.