Ambassador of Bangladesh Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim On the auspicious occasion of the 45th Anniversary of the Independence and National Day of the People's Republic of Bangladesh, I convey my heartfelt congratulations and warm greetings to our respected members of Bangladesh community living in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This great day as we celebrate, I pay my deep respect to the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who led the nation to achieve Independence through a glorious War of Liberation in 1971. I salute and pay my deep homage to all the valiant freedom fighters who made supreme sacrifices and presented us the independent Bangladesh. My respect is to the martyrs of Liberation War and all those millions of people who withstood all the sufferings yet supported the War of Liberation. I would like to take this opportunity to express our deepest gratitude to Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman for his generous support for Bangladesh including re-opening of the Kingdom's labor market for Bangladeshi workforce. The extraordinary kindness and generosity of King Salman and the brotherly people of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to Bangladesh is always reverenced by the people and government of Bangladesh. We deeply appreciate the government and people of Saudi Arabia for facilitating the Haj and Umrah pilgrimage to a significant number of our citizens every year. After birth of a nation over last 45 years, Bangladesh has achieved significant progress in all areas of social and economic indicators. Its recent achievements in social development and macro-management continue to bring laurels and appreciation from the global community. The present government of Bangladesh under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been working hard to build a digital Bangladesh and to achieve middle income country status through the "Vision by 2021" and a developed country with the "Vision 2041". Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has extended full support towards Saudi Arabia with its role towards Yemen and formation of the Alliance to combat terrorism and extremism. Bangladesh, one of the top troops contributing countries for UN peacekeeping operations around the globe, has been playing active role in peace building and promotion of democracy in the war-torn countries for the international order for protection and promotion of the interest of all nations. Bangladesh's enlightened and forward looking foreign policy had made the country an important role player in the UN, NAM, OIC, Commonwealth and other international and regional organizations. Bangladesh always attaches great importance on its ties with the government and people of Saudi Arabia. These excellent relations between Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia may be attributed to the fact that both countries share many common perspectives, values and commitments. Over the last 40 years, Bangladesh-Saudi friendship has not only endured the vicissitude of time, but also has been consolidated and prospered. The relations have reached new height in recent time following the fruitful engagements between relevant ministers including foreign ministers of the two countries in many areas such as labor market expansion, ICT cooperation, trade and economic cooperation and fruitful political consultations between the two countries. We hope to build our relations on the achievements of these recent productive engagements to set up a future of even closer cooperation and understanding both at the bilateral and multilateral levels between Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia. We would like to see the peoples of both countries to herald a defining moment of raising our relationship to a new height in the coming days. On this day I would urge all the members of Bangladesh community to continue their valuable support to accelerate the socio-economic developments of our beloved motherland and to further strengthen the excellent relationship that exists between our two brotherly countries. Joi Bangla. Joi Bangabandhu.
