Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday urged engineers to be more proactive and honest in using their professional skills to implement government’s development plans.

‘The main responsibility of implementing the government’s development plans is bestowed on you,’ the premier said as she opened the 58th Convention of Engineers Institution, Bangladesh (IEB) at its Khulna centre.

She added: ‘So you have to play active and sincere role to achieve the cherished goal of making Bangladesh a developed country.’

Sheikh Hasina also urged engineers to be innovative in fixing strategies and inventing technologies to explore alternative energy, energy efficient technology and low cost housing to spearhead the development campaign amidst limited resources.

‘We don’t want to borrow any construction technology from abroad. Our engineers would have to be self-reliant in every area,’ she said calling for intensive research for the development of low-cost machineries and infrastructure.

She asked them to simultaneously attach importance in developing environment friendly and disaster and particularly the earthquake-proof infrastructure for their sustainability.

IEB president Kabir Ahmed Bhuiyan chaired the function while it’s general secretary Abdus Sabur, IEB’s Khulna center chairman Abdullah Sadik and president of convention preparatory committee Moniruzzaman Palash spoke, among others, on the occasion.

The premier appreciated the engineers’ skills and role in country’s development recalling contributions engineers like MA Rashid, FR Khan and one of IEB’s founders MA Jabbar saying their contributions were immense to reach the country’s engineering education and profession to the present stage.

‘Many of our young and talented engineers earned repute and goodwill in different IT villages across the world. . . we want to send more competent engineers abroad to enhance our foreign exchange earnings as well as Bangladesh’s goodwill,’ she said.

Sheikh Hasina assured the engineers of her all support for the IEB saying the Awami League government always remained aside you.

In 1996, she said, the Awami League government allocated 10 bighas of land in Ramna to construct IEB Bhaban in Dhaka in addition to a donation of Taka 5 crore for construction of the building.

The premier said the Awami League government also donated Taka 23 crore for upward extension of the IEB Bhaban, she said adding that her government had given 72 bighas of land at a nominal value for engineering Staff College.

The government also allocated Taka 46 crore for implementing first and second phases of the staff college. ands were allocated for Khulna center of EIB in addition to allotment of two bighas of land in Purbachal.

Sheikh Hasina said Bangladesh is no more lagging behind in the areas of science and technology while by now the country appeared as a development role model with 7.28 percent growth in the last fiscal year.

The prime minister also sought everybody’s support to build Bangladesh as a poverty, hunger and militancy-free nation.

Pointing out her government’s stride to reach the benefits of science and information and communication technology (ICT) to the people’s doorsteps Sheikh Hasina said ‘we want to expedite the process by using the talents of the engineers’.

The premier distributed awards among engineers for their outstanding contribution to different areas and conferred AMIE degrees on 97 successful students engineering professional courses.