Local Government and Rural Development (LGRD) and Cooperatives Minister Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan was the chief guest at the inaugural session of the three-day seminar on `Sustainable Rural Development' at the LGED Bhaban.

Bhuiyan said the topic of the seminar was an important issue, which needs to be discussed in depth to assess how the government institutions may be more effective to sustain the development initiatives, specially the rural development initiatives.

"In Bangladesh, majority of the population live in the rural areas and poverty is widespread. According to recent estimates over 40 percent of them still live below poverty line and half of them is considered to be the hard core poor," he said.

LGED chief engineer M Shahidul Hassan chaired the inaugural session. Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) jointly organised the seminar.

Director General of Local Government Division Sharful Alam and Charge d'Affaires of Japan Embassy Hidetoshi Ukita were present as special guests.

Superintendent Engineer and Coordinator of RDEC Setting-up Project of LGED M Wahidur Rahman presented a keynote paper on "Rural Development Strategy and its Impact on Poverty Reduction."

Bhuiyan that the present government has given top priority to eradicating poverty in order to promote economic growth and other socio-economic issues that affect the poor people.

"Therefore, reducing poverty means rural development through creating suitable rural infrastructure and employment generation. But rural infrastructure in the country that contribute towards rural development are mostly backward and poorly maintained," he said.

He assured the seminar of taking necessary steps to implement its recommendations for the betterment of the people.

Wahidur Rahman, in his keynote paper, said rural development in Bangladesh shifted focus from infrastructure-related to agriculture to total accessibility improvement.

The rural development strategy has shifted to multiple avenues such as accessibility improvement, local governance, empowerment of women and caring for environment, he said. "Change of focus was demand-driven and need of time."