Bangladesh PM Hasina praises Modi for Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative

Hasina's remarks came while addressing the virtual India-Bangladesh summit with Modi.

Dhaka: Bangladesh Premier Sheikh Hasina on Thursday praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his leadership in combating the COVID-19 pandemic in India and launching economic packages under his Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative to help the country out of the coronavirus crisis.

Modi in May announced in his address to the nation an economic package of Rs 20 lakh crore to tide over the coronavirus crisis under the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan.

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He said the economic package would play an important role in making India ‘self-reliant’ and that it would benefit labourers, farmers, honest tax-payers, MSMEs and the cottage industry.

Commending Prime Minister Modi for how his government has countered the COVID-19 in one of the world’s most affected and populated zones, Hasina said: “Apart from the health care packages, the economic packages introduced under your initiative of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ is admirable.” Hasina’s remarks came while addressing the virtual India-Bangladesh summit with Modi.

She expressed hope that India would play an even more important role in the global economy through the policies implemented by Modi.

Hasina said her government also introduced stimulus packages to the tune of USD 14.14 billion to offset the economic and social impacts of the pandemic.

She said extensive measures have been put in place to contain the second wave of the pandemic.

“As a result, our economy has sustained an upward growth trend, despite widespread disruptions in the international supply chains and decline in consumer demand,” she said.

Bangladesh has so far reported 495,841 coronavirus cases with 7,156 deaths. India has reported a total of 99.56 lakh cases as on Thursday while the death toll was 1,44,451.