Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith has said the annual poverty reduction rate should reach 2.0 per cent to attain the government’s goal for eradicating poverty from the country.
“Our goal is to reduce the poverty level to 10 per cent for which we have to maintain the annual reduction rate to 2.0 per cent for next seven to 10 years which is very important for us,” Muhith said.
The finance minister was addressing the inaugural ceremony of the day-long ‘Bangladesh Kishore-Kishori Sommelon 2018’ held at the Bangabandhu International Conference Center (BICC) in the city on Sunday.
Organised by Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF), its board of directors member Naznin Sultana and Deputy Managing Director M Fazlul Kader spoke on the occasion chaired by PKSF Chairman Dr Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad.
Muhith said although the present government has defeated poverty in many ways, but still nearly 30 million people in the country live below the poverty line, including 10 million people in extreme poverty.
He said eradicating poverty not really means that there would be no poverty in the country, rather there would be some people who would always remain below the poverty level like the physically and mentally challenged, widowed, and aged people.
Muhith said the state would have to look after this section of people and some 10-14 per cent such people in any country remain under the supervision of the state.
Citing examples, he said that poverty rate in the USA is around 14 per cent while it is 7.0 per cent in Malaysia.
The Bangladesh Kishore-Kishori Sommelon 2018 was organised with the participation of selected 710 adolescents out of 0.1 million students from some 11,000 educational institutions through various creative and knowledge-based competitions.
After the inaugural session, a workshop was held with the participation of the juveniles.
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