South Asia must emerge as a connected, friendly and competitive region always ready to build bridges with other regions, said Sheikh Hasina.
“In the past decades, we’ve seen many lofty regional ideas and initiatives. Some succeeded, others could not deliver,” she said.
The Prime Minister made the remarks at the closing plenary of the two-day India Economic Summit of the World Economic Forum, held at Hotel Taj Palace in New Delhi, as per reports on local agencies.
She thinks the region should follow four principles in the next decades.
First, she said, the region must strive to secure peace, stability and harmony, for every individual across societies.
She said pluralism has been a strength of South Asia for centuries.
“So, we should be able to celebrate South Asia’s diversities in religion, ethnicity and language. This is fundamental”, said Sheikh Hasina.
"Second, we must ensure that inequality across societies do not widen in times of faster growth”, said the premier.
“Wealth creation should be inclusive and must trickle down to the bottom millions. Less developed communities or countries should not lag behind,” said she.
Placing the third principle, the Prime Minister said mutual trust and mutual respect between all communities and countries is the key.
“We need to get over misperceptions and false apprehensions”, said Hasina.
Fourth, the region must manage its geo-political realities through friendship and collaboration, said the Prime Minister.
“Let us appreciate and balance regional political realties for the interest of our peoples.
“We cannot trade off long-term interests for short-term gains,” she added.
Hasina mentioned that Bangladesh resolved sharing of the Ganges river water with India in 1996.
“We amicably delimited our maritime boundary with India and Myanmar. Bangladesh and India are now developing trans-boundary river navigation. We're buying power from India through inter-country grid connections,” she said.
The Prime Minister said such collaborative culture is essential across their politics, economy and society.
Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore Heng Swee Keat, Managing Director of Sequoia Capital India Shailendra Singh, Executive Vice Chairperson of Apollo Hospital Enterprise Shobana Karmineni, Chairwoman of Booking.com Gillian Tans were panellists at the event.
Replying to a query from the moderator of the event, Prime Minister Hasina said Bangladesh is attaching priority to establish connectivity among the South Asia, South East Asia and others to promote trade and commerce in the region.
Hasina said her government is working to restore the previous connectivity which was suspended after 1965.
“We always think about it. We can make a bridge in this region and beyond the region,” she said, adding that Bangladesh is playing its role in establishing the Asian highway and Asian railway network.
Describing poverty as a common enemy, Hasina said all countries in the region should work together to fight the menace.
“We have the ability to do it and we’ll definitely do it,” she said.