Arrest those who looted, keep the factories running: Fakhrul

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has said his party always prioritised the economy and it placed the greatest emphasis on the economy whenever it came to power.

He said this today, Saturday, at the Fourth Bangladesh Economic Conference 2025, held at the Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel in the capital. The conference was organised by the daily Bonik Barta.

The BNP Secretary General said, “Personally, I believe that in Bangladesh we need to change the way we think about businessmen… Over the past 15 years, those who have looted, stolen, robbed banks, and siphoned off wealth—catch them, punish them. They have industries and factories where thousands of people work. But these have been shut down, making 1.4 million people unemployed. Where will these people go? Why are we creating this unemployment? I think we need to rethink this matter. We need to see how we can reopen these factories, how we can revitalise these institutions to create employment for these people.”

Mirza Fakhrul said, “What we want to emphasise most today is ensuring that ordinary people can live well. Our farmers should be able to live well and have their problems solved. Our workers should get fair wages for their labour, and there should be stability in the economy.”

If fertilisers and seeds can be properly delivered to farmers, even greater achievements are possible, Fakhrul said.

“If you look closely, during the 1971 Liberation War, the population of Bangladesh was 75 million and the food deficit was 2.8 million metric tons. But today, Bangladesh is nearly self-sufficient in food. We have achieved a great deal in this sector.”

The BNP leader said that improving people’s quality of life requires work in the health sector, and the education sector must be fundamentally transformed to make it suitable for public development.

Referring to the signing of the July Charter, the BNP Secretary General said that the party had long proposed many reforms.

“In 2016, our leader Begum Khaleda Zia presented Vision 30. Many of the issues we agree on today were present there. Likewise, in 2023, we proposed 31 points, which include almost all the matters of today’s economic reforms and political reforms. Overall, we have always envisioned Bangladesh not only as a new Bangladesh but as a prosperous Bangladesh," Fakhrul added.