Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina stressed on ensuring education, training, right tools and access to equal opportunities for women to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
"Women empowerment is a must for successful achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as women are the most important drivers of transformation," she said, reports BSS.
The Prime Minister made the remarks while addressing a Roundtable of UN Secretary General's High-Level Panel (HLP) on Women's Economic Empowerment for Leaving No One Behind at UN Headquarters in New York on Tuesday.
Sheikh Hasina said, in the political spectrum, Bangladesh has ensured representation of women at all levels, from the top to the lowest tier of the government.
The government has established a foundation namely 'Joyeeta' to promote women in businesses and entrepreneurship, which provides support to as many as 18,000 grassroots level women entrepreneurs, she said.
The Prime Minister said over four million women are employed in the readymade garments industry sector. Thirty five per cent of women have bank accounts. Women's contribution to the GDP growth is 34 per cent.
The government of Bangladesh aims at ensuring 40 per cent participation of women in every sector by 2021 and 50 per cent by 2030, she said.
President of Costa Rica Luis Guillermo Solis Rivera, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde, and Executive Director of UN Women Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka also spoke on the occasion.
