The New Nation - Internet Edition

BSS, Bogra

Industries Adviser Geeti Ara Safiya Chowdhury yesterday laid emphasis on expansion of the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to reach their benefit to the remote areas.

Inaugurating a newly built help line centre here, she termed the SMEs as effective tools to reduce poverty and said such ventures could create tremendous job opportunities in rural areas.

With Deputy Commissioner Md Humayun Kabir in the chair, the function was also addressed, among others, by chairman of BSCIC Mahbub-ur-Rahman, Deputy Director General of Borga BSCIC Shankar Kumar Das and women entrepreneur Shahana Yousuf.

Geeti Ara Safiya Chowdhury said Bangladesh has a bright prospects of area- based industrialisation and this has to be materialised in line with the country's socio-economic context.

2-3rds of under-5 children die of

malnutrition

BSS, Dhaka

Adviser for Health and Family Welfare Major General (retd) Dr ASM Matiur Rahman yesterday said malnutrition in the country is responsible for the death of nearly two-thirds of children under the age of five.

Quoting figures from a recent research report, the adviser said breast-feeding could reduce mortality rate by at least 13 per cent of children of 0-6 months age group while extra food minimises the rate by six percent of the under-five children.

Although poverty remains as a major cause of concern, ignorance, unhealthy food habit and superstition are also responsible for malnutrition, Dr Rahman observed.

To break the vicious cycle of poverty and malnutrition, the health adviser said, steps should be taken to create awareness among the people to remove ignorance and superstition and change their food habit.

Dr Rahman was addressing a national workshop on Role of Nutrition in Bangladesh to Attain the Millennium Development Goals as the chief guest at ICDDRB here.

National Nutrition Programme (NNP) organised the workshop.

The workshop was addressed, among others, by NNP Executive Director Ranjit Kumar Biswas.

Under the NNP, the heath adviser said, over three crore people in 105 upazilas under 34 districts have been getting different types of nutrition services since July 2004.

This year, he said, 63 upazilas were brought under the NNP programme. The government has taken a decision to bring 60 more upazilas under the NNP network in 2008-2009 financial year.

The government has formulated a national strategy paper styled 'National Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding' and published it help to remove malnutrition from the country.