Dhaka: Finance Minister AMA Muhith Monday said employment a very important and basic issue for the removal of poverty in the country.

He said employment should itself be a target in achieving "Bangladesh Post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Initiative".

The minister said this at a meeting on "Post 2015" Sustainable Development Goals' oragnised by the Ministry of Finance at the NEC conference room in city's Sher-e-Bangla Nagar.

Muhith said one of the main targets of SDGs should be eradication of poverty apart from education, health and nutrition. "Targets must not be too many and they should be attainable, visible and measurable."

Planning Minister Air Vice Marshal (retd) A K Khandker, Agriculture Minister Begum Matia Chowdhry, Home Minister Dr. Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, Water Resources Minister Ramesh Chandra Sen, Health Minister AFM Ruhal Haque, Foreign Minister Dr. Dipu Moni, Food Minister Dr M Abdur Razzaque, Industries Minister Dilip Barua, State Minister for Women and Children Affairs Dr Shirin Sharmin Chowdhury and Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Atiur Rahman, among others spoke on the occasion.

Eminent economist Prof. Dr. Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad presented the keynote paper. Secretaries of different ministries and representatives of the development partners also attended the meeting.

Agriculture minister Matia Chowdhury noted that the main cause of poverty in Bangladesh is river erosion, adding that the rivers of the country are not being taken care of as well as the river routes remain unusable. She also stressed the need for getting good fund for research and development in agriculture.

Industries minister Dilip Barua underscored the need for sustainable industries to have sustainable development.

"Without sustainable industries, we would not be able to achieve our sustainable growth," Mentioning that nutrition is one of the most important issues for Bangladesh which need investment, Food minister Dr M Abdur Razzaque expressed his dissatisfaction that matrix on funding in this regard remains empty.

"We didn't get much from our development partners." Home minister Dr Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir suggested that freer movement of manpower, unhindered transfer of technologies and freer movement of investment funds should be incorporated to the draft targets.

Foreign minister Dr Dipu Moni said that Bangladesh should fix the targets which would be few, focused and simple and also acceptable. She also observed that Bangladesh has been diligent in realizing the MDG goals ahead of the timeline.

Dr Atiur Rahman said that focus is being given in the country's fiscal and monetary policy to gain sustainable development.

Earlier in his presentation, Dr Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad showed that Bangladesh has already achieved or is on the track to achieving most of the MDG targets.

But, deficits relate mostly to eradication of hunger, water supply and sanitation.

Ends/AMA/21/01/13