Major General A K Mohammad Ali Sikder PSC (Retd.):

The globally famed news agency Bloomberg recently predicted in a report that Sheikh Hasina can become the Prime Minister of Bangladesh for the fourth consecutive term winning the next national elections. According to Bloomberg’s analysis, Sheikh Hasina- led party Awami League will win the next election because of global instability and the highest growth rate in the world maintained by Bangladesh for the past 14 years. This report is not conventional, it has different dimensions.

Michael Bloomberg, one of America’s billionaires, founded the news agency in 1981. He is a very influential leader of the Democratic Party. In the primary phase of the 2020 presidential election, he participated in the competition as a Democratic Party candidate. But late in the primary, he withdrew his candidacy in support of current President Joe Biden. Later, Biden defeated another strong contender Bernie Sanders to win the Democratic nomination.

So it can be assumed that Michael Bloomberg will have considerable influence on the current US administration. After the Bloomberg report, the lower house of the US House of Representatives passed a resolution lauding Dhaka-Washington relations and Bangladesh’s development. It has mentioned in the resolution that under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh has progressed rapidly in socioeconomic sectors including food production, poverty reduction, health security and education jump, women’s empowerment, and disaster mitigation. It also mentioned that the rapid progress of Bangladesh is now a role model for the world.

When the country became independent in 1971, the size of the domestic economy was only $9 billion. In 35 years until 2006, it increased to $71.8 billion. The size of Bangladesh’s economy rose to $450 billion. The size of the economy increased by $388.2 billion in 14 years, which is almost 4 times the total size of the economy in the last 35 years. What was not possible in 35 years done by Sheikh Hasina- led government in 14 years. The proposal of the US Congress also said that Bangladesh has successfully played a leading role in combating extremism and establishing world peace.