Statement of H.E. Sheikh Hasina, Hon’ble Prime Minister of Bangladesh at the Generation Equality Forum, Paris “Technology and Innovation for Gender Equality” Action Coalition, 01 July 2021

Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim

Excellencies, I thank the organizers for convening this important forum.

At Beijing in 1995,the world community made bold commitments for women empowerment. Many of those promises, unfortunately, remain unfulfilled. Globally, women’s participation in politics, economy and labour force is not encouraging. Today, only 25% of parliamentarians are women, while women participation in labour force is still 31% less than men. We must reverse this situation through bold policy measures and concerted actions.

Women’s empowerment has been a priority of my government. Our Digital Bangladesh Vision has meaningfully integrated women in IT sector. We have launched various practical projects aims at creating women IT professionals and efficient entrepreneurs. We are also using many digital apps in addressing violence against women. In the last three years, over 71,000 girls received cyber awareness training leading to their enhanced safety on cyber platforms.

In continuation to my earlier pledge at the 25th anniversary event of the Beijing Conference, today I would like to make the following pledge:

“Increase women’s participation in ICT sector, including tech start-ups and e-commerce sector to 25% by 2026 and 50% by 2041”

I wish the forum all the success.

I thank you all.