A Taka 2,45,000 crore Revised Annual Development Programme (RADP) for the current fiscal year (FY24) was approved today by the National Economic Council (NEC), with a focus on industries like power, energy, road transportation, and communication, reports BSS.
Compared to the initial ADP size of Taka 2,63,000 crore for the current fiscal year, the approved RADP is Taka 18,000 crore, or 6.84 percent less.
The clearance resulted from a NEC meeting that was chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today in the NEC Conference Room located in the Sher-e-Bangla Nagar neighborhood of the city.
Following the meeting, Senior Secretary of the Planning Division Satyajit Karmakar briefed media, stating that of the total revised RADP budget of 2,45,000 crore, 1,61,500 crore will come from domestic sources and 83,500 crore from foreign sources.
Planning Minister Major General (retd) Abdus Salam and State Minister for Planning Md Shahiduzzaman Sarker spoke at the briefing.
Satyajit said the total number of projects in the RADP for the current fiscal year has been fixed at 1588, including 1345 investment projects, 36 feasibility study, 115 technical assistance projects, and 92 self financed projects.
The Planning Minister said that a good number of specific proposals were placed in the meeting in line with the earlier directives from the Prime Minister on project formulation, approval and implementation.
He said during the meeting which lasted nearly three hours, the Premier asked the authorities concerned to arrange necessary allocations for those projects which are nearing completion and could be completed with minimum fund and also those could bear much returns.
Salam said the Prime Minister also stressed on conducting feasibility to avert the usual tendency of delay in project formulation and implementation stages.
In this regard, he said the Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) has been asked to take special initiative on monitoring so that the development projects are completed in a timely manner side by side there is no time over run and cost over run.
The Planning Minister said emphasis was also given in the meeting on prioritizing allocations and investments in the sectors like agriculture, health, education, power and energy, science and technology, social protection, climate change in line with the 8th Five Year Plan.
In response to a query, Salam stated that a number of Ministries and Divisions frequently receive lower RADP allocations because of capacity issues and other constraints.
It has been advised that the ministries of Education and Health increase their ability to execute the RADP, he said.
In response to a question regarding the current fiscal year’s slow pace of ADP use, the Planning Minister stated that numerous challenges, along with political and economic uncertainty, have hindered the speed of growth since the current fiscal year began in July 2023.
Brushing aside all the speculations over holding of the last general election, he said a free and fair general election was held in the country and subsequently all the economic indicators are increasing in Bangladesh like the inward remittance.
“Stability is the pre-condition of development and it is now prevailing,” he said, adding that the implementation of projects is now going on smoothly.
The Planning Minister also informed that work on framing the 9th Five Year Plan has already started and it would be drafted in line with the Delta Plan 2100 and the Perspective Plan.
Answering to another question about the usual trend of downsize revision of the ADP, Salam said that revision of the ADP is a continuous process and it would continue.
State Minister for Planning Md Shahiduzzaman Sarker said that the RADP for the current fiscal year has been finalized considering the current and practical situation with some minor changes.
He said that the Prime Minister in the meeting put much emphasis on capacity building of the executing agencies.
Planning Division Senior Secretary Satyajit Karmakar said that Prime Minister has already asked the Cabinet Secretary to submit a roadmap on how to enhance capacity of the project directors and also to utilize their maximum potentials through creating a pool.
In this regard, Satyajit said once the roadmap and guideline is available, then some specific proposals would be submitted before the Prime Minister to comprehensively deal with the trend of slow pace in implementation as well as lack of capacity.
He informed that the Prime Minister asked the concerned ministries and divisions to complete some 330 projects, which are nearing completion, to complete those in the current fiscal year.
The Planning Secretary said the secretaries of the Ministries and divisions concerned of those 330 projects have pledged that those projects would be completed within the timeframe as their local and foreign funding have ready been assured.
Responding to a question, Satyajit said although there are some dissimilarities in resource allocation in line with the 8th Five Year Plan, but the Prime Minister has given directive to take more quality projects in the health, agriculture, education, environment sectors as well as for the development of the womenfolk.
According to the RADP for FY24, the transport and communication sector got the highest allocation of Taka 63,263.31 (25.82%) followed by power and energy sector Taka 37,896.73 crore (15.47%), housing and community facilities Taka 28,002.15 crore (11.43%), Local Government and Rural Development Taka 19,969.71 crore (8.15%), education Taka 17,229.91 crore (7.03%), environment, climate change and water resources Taka 14,391 crore (5.87%), health Taka 12,066.76 crore (4.93%), agriculture Taka 10,317.76 crore (4.21%), industry and Economic services Taka 4,630.43 crore (1.89%) and science and ICT Taka 3,637.12 crore (1.48%).
Out of the highest allocation recipient Ministries and Divisions, Local Government Division topped the list with Taka 42,700.76 crore (17.43%) followed by Road Transport and Highways Division Taka 27,803.45 crore (11.35%), Power Division Taka 27,127.45 crore (11.07%), Ministry of Railways Taka 13,117.62 crore (5.35%), Ministry of Water Resources Taka 12,192.75 crore (4.98%), Ministry of Science and Technology Taka 11,415.51 crore (4.66%), Health Services Division Taka 9,345.49 crore (3.81%).
