Defence budget cut by all countries can eliminate poverty, PM says

Poverty can be totally eliminated if all the countries cut down their defence expenditure, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 30 May 2015, 03:14 PM
Updated : 30 May 2015, 03:16 PM

“There would be no poverty in the world if a tiny portion of the defence budget is spent on eradicating it,” she said while inaugurating the South Asia Right to Food Conference in Dhaka on Saturday.

In 2012, the global defence spending was $1.76 trillion while only $30 billion was needed every year for a hunger-free world, said Hasina.

“The global defence budget in 2012 was the global GDP’s 2.5 percent, which means a per capita military spending of $249.”

The prime minister said that the food security did not only depend on production. “The amount of global food production is sufficient to fulfil the demand of the global population.”

She said that food availability was influenced by factors like poverty, flawed economic and distribution systems, conflict, high population, food and agriculture policies as well as climate change.

“While we are speaking here, millions of people in this world are hungry,” said Hasina.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), around 805 million people in the world suffer from malnutrition, which is one out of every nine people.

The prime minister urged leaders of South Asian countries to fast implement the SAARC Food Bank.

“Let us ensure that not a single person in South Asia dies of hunger. Let’s make the SAARC Food Bank as their saviour.”

She called on to shun violent political programmes and said: “Differences of opinion will be there in every country. People may differ on matters like development.”

Hasina also thanked Nobel Peace laureate Kailash Satyarthi for attending the conference.