Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday urged the Swiss entrepreneurs to make investments in Bangladesh to create a mini Switzerland in the South Asian country.

Swiss businesses can invest in Bangladesh in the special economic zones, she said, adding, ‘We will provide lands in SEZs and they can make a mini Switzerland here,’ she said.

The prime minister made this call when Swiss ambassador to Bangladesh Reto Siegfried Renggli paid a courtesy call on her at the prime minister’s office.

Prime minister’s press secretary Ihsanul Karim briefed the reporters after the call on.

In response the ambassador said Swiss companies were interested to invest in Bangladesh, said the press secretary.

The envoy said that the volume of trade between Bangladesh and Switzerland should be increased.

He said that he would continue to work for further strengthening the bilateral relations and cooperation.

The envoy appreciated the economic development of Bangladesh under the leadership of PM Hasina in the last one decade.

He said that Switzerland would work together with Bangladesh to fight the adverse impact of climate change.

PM Hasina said that the focus of her government was on the development of rural people of Bangladesh. ‘The backbone of development is middle class people,’ she added.

‘We are taking many programmes to reduce the extreme poverty rate to zero, at least to one per cent,’ she added.

The prime minister mentioned that Bangladesh’s founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had a vision to ‘make Bangladesh as the Switzerland of the East’.

She recalled that she was with Sheikh Mujib when he visited Switzerland at the invitation of Swiss government after undergoing surgery in London.

Talking about connectivity, she said Bangladesh could be a bridge between the East and the West. ‘So, the government is now developing the airports to this end.’

‘We look forward to transforming Bangladesh-Switzerland bilateral relations into a broad-based partnership,’ she said.

The prime minister assured the ambassador of extending all cooperation in discharging his duty in Dhaka.

The Swiss envoy handed over the copy of a letter to Sheikh Hasina, which Bangabandhu sent to the Switzerland government in replying to Swiss recognition to Bangladesh as an independent country.

Receiving the letter, the prime minister said that the letter would be displayed in the museum.

PM’s principal secretary M Tofazzel Hossain Miah and deputy head of Swiss Mission in Bangladesh Corinne Henchoz Pignani were also present at the meeting.