Brighter days beckon Bangladesh and the youth should realise that potential, US Ambassador Dan Mozena said yesterday.
"The dream of Golden Bangladesh can be a reality within a decade or two," Mozena told a gathering of several hundred young people.
The US envoy spoke at the concluding session of the three-day Youth Leadership Summit organised by Bangladesh Youth Leadership Centre (BYLC). Some 450 delegates from all over the country joined the event.
The envoy said building Bangladesh up into a middle-income country with an improved quality of life for its people will not be easy.
"The Golden Bangladesh will not just happen like that. People will have to make it happen. Those people are you," he told the youths at Bashundhara Convention Centre.
Mozena said Bangladesh is truly a blessed country. "It has a unifying culture, language and spirit," he said, praising energy, creativity and resilience of Bangladeshis.
He said Bangladesh's soil is rich and productive and it has ample water and abundant natural resources, Mozena said.
"The private sector and the entrepreneurial spirit thrive," he said and expected that Bangladesh should be the world's largest readymade garment and home textile exporter.
He also hoped Bangladesh should be a major global player in building freighters, in information technology, pharmaceuticals, finished leather goods, seafood and in finding new uses for jute.
The youths are the future and the leaders of Bangladesh, he added.
"America will be your partner in this task," he told the youths who were mostly university students. “The new challenging Bangladesh, the Golden Bangladesh, awaits your renaissance. The time is now,” he said.
Mozena said the US will open its Edward M Kennedy Center for public services and arts in collaboration with the Liberation War Museum.
Foreign Secretary Mohamed Mijarul Quayes, Cofounder and Principal of Cambridge Leadership Associates Marty Linsky and Founder and President of BYLC Ejaj Ahmad also spoke.
HILLARY CLINTON
The visit of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton early next week will deepen bilateral ties between Bangladesh and the USA, Mozena said.
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