Coming together: The colourful celebration of Pohela Boishakh (the New Year Festival) in Dhaka. — Photo courtesy of Bangladesh Embassy

To mark the 44th anniversary of Bangladesh's Independence and National Day today, Viet Nam News presents an article by the Bangladesh Ambassador to Viet Nam, Mohammad Shahab Ullah.

The general election held on January 5, 2014, to sustain the progress of parliamentary democracy in Bangladesh was a unique milestone. The grand alliance government in 2009-13 tenure succeeded in ensuring massive development in all sectors of the country through wholehearted co-operation of the people.

This was seen through the recognition given to Bangladesh in the international arena. Standing firm on the edifice of development erected by the grand alliance government, the present government is moving towards its Vision-2021.

A brief account of the development activities and progresses achieved by the present government during the past year is presented below:

Award for banking

Actual revenue collection during 2013-14 stood at Taka 141 thousand 603 crore equivalent US$18.154 billion. The rate of poverty has been projected at 24.5 per cent in the mid-term implemen-tation report of the sixth five-year plan in 2014.

Last year, Bangladesh Bank received an award for its mobile banking policy and financial inclusion from the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI). A total of 965,000 old taxpayers completed online registration by November 2014 and 391,000 taxpayers have done the same this year.

Exports during the 2013-14 financial year recorded an 11.69 per cent growth to hit $30,176.8 million. Exports during July-November 2014 recorded a 0.92 per cent growth of $12.07 billion.

A memorandum of understanding has been signed by Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Associations (BGMEA) with a Chinese investment firm to set up a garments industrial park on 250ha of land at Baushia of Munshiganj.

The drop-out rate at primary school level has come down to 21.4 per cent. The status of headmasters in government primary schools has been lifted to class two from class three. The number of students receiving stipends in 63,587 schools now stand at more than 7 million.

A total of 3. 263 billion copies of text books have been distributed among students from primary to Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and equivalent levels for the 2015 academic year.

Bangladesh was declared a polio-free country in 2014. A bone-transplant plant unit has been set up at Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib Specialised Hospital and Nursing College has become operational.

A separate 150-bed unit for female and child heart patients has been established at the National Heart Foundation. A 20-bed burn unit has been put in place at Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital. A door-to-door survey to identify autistic children has been completed in seven districts in seven divisions. At present, Bangladeshi medicines are exported to 93 countries.

Reflecting culture: Lalbagh Fort is an incomplete 17th-century Mughal fort complex that stands proudly before the Buriganga River in the southwestern part of Dhaka, Bangladesh. — Photo bdshots.net

The production of food-grains increased to more than 383 million metric tonnes during the 2013-14 fiscal year. Food-grain production during 2014 has risen to 35 million metric tonnes during 2014.

Capacity raised

The production capacity of electricity in the country has been raised to 13,283 megawatt by installing new power plants of 1300 megawatt capacity during the past year. Maximum electricity generation rose to 7,418 megawatt in July, 2014, from 6,675 megawatt on July 11, 2013.

The number of households receiving electricity rose to 68 per cent in 2013-14 from 62 per cent in 2012-13.

The Unicode-based Bangladesh Standard (BDS 1520:2011) for the existing Bengali Character Code Set has been devised for enhancing the use of Bangla language in computers.

Bangladesh received the WSIS Award from the International Telecommunication Union in 2014 and the Global ICT Excellence Award. — VNS