Hasina leaves for Hungary to attend water summit

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has left Dhaka on a three-day visit to Hungary where she will attend the Water Conference.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 27 Nov 2016, 04:39 AM
Updated : 27 Nov 2016, 09:25 AM

This is her first official visit to the central European country.

A special Biman Bangladesh flight carrying her took off from Dhaka around 9am on Sunday.

The prime minister is expected to reach Budapest in the afternoon (local time) and attend the inaugural ceremony of the Budapest Water Summit 2016 slated for the next morning.

Hasina is a member of the UN High-Level Panel on Water.

The other members of the panel are presidents of Hungary, Mauritius, Mexico, South Africa, Tajikistan, Peru and Senegal and prime ministers of Australia, Jordan and the Netherlands.

The summit aims to chalk out the future course of action to achieve water and sanitation related SDG (Sustainable Development Goal) of the UN.

It will also reflect on the progress made so far on water-related issues in the Paris climate agreement.

Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali said four memorandum of understanding (MoU) would be signed by the two countries during Hasina’s stay there.

Water Resources Minister Anisul Islam Mahmud and LGRD Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain are accompanying her along with a delegation of business leaders on the visit.

Her visit aims to boost trade and investment and cooperation in water resource management and agriculture between the two countries.

She will hold a meeting with the Hungarian president on Monday and attend a reception organised by the Hungarian government at night.

On Tuesday morning, she will pay homage to the Hungarian martyrs at the Heroes Square, and later she will hold a bilateral meeting with her Hungarian counterpart.

The two premiers will inaugurate the Bangladesh-Hungary Business Economic Forum.

Hasina is scheduled to return on Wednesday.