To further accelerate the nation’s development frenzy, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today instructed the relevant authorities from all ministries and divisions to expeditiously complete foreign-aided projects and grant projects, making additional efforts as needed.
The directions were issued by the premier during a meeting of the National Economic Council (NEC) held in the NEC Conference Room located in the Sher-e-Bangla Nagar neighborhood of the city. A Taka 2.65 lakh crore ADP was approved by the NEC for the upcoming fiscal year (FY25).
Following the discussion, Senior Secretary of the Planning Division Satyajit Karmakar briefed reporters on the Prime Minister’s directive to the relevant authorities to appoint project directors and other officials in their specialized fields again once they had finished their training in such sectors.
Planning Minister Major General (retd) Abdus Salam, State Minister for Planning Md Shahiduzzaman Sarker, Planning Commission members and secretaries concerned attended the briefing.
Instead of not taking smaller projects, Satyajit said the premier advocated for taking district-based projects and thus entrusting the district-level officials for overseeing those projects.
Sheikh Hasina reiterated her appeal for the creation of a pool of project directors and stressed the importance of providing the required training to officials and project directors who are undertrained.
The Prime Minister instructed the relevant ministries and divisions to update the ECNEC on the status of their individual assisted projects every three months in order to inject energy into the implementation speed and increase the rate of foreign assistance projects.
The premier also gave the Implementation, Monitoring, and Evaluation Division (IMED) the go-ahead to take the required actions to register companies that perform feasibility studies in order to facilitate the conduct of high-quality feasibility studies in many fields.
Planning Minister Abdus Salam said that the NEC meeting approved all proposals which were made in the extended meeting held on May 7.
He said since most of the projects are taken as upazila-based for which lack of coordination was seen to some extent. It was proposed in the meeting to take district-wise projects and the NEC discussed it positively.
He stated that while those were being made practicable, the parliamentarians would be working on creating the district-by-district participatory master plan for a maximum of five years. The minister said that the procedure will involve even the chairmen of the upazilas.
Salam added that there would be increased development work done in the fields of communication, health, education, and rural infrastructure.
According to him, project selection is now much more rigorously filtered, and no pointless or useless projects are being accepted.
Terming the alleviation of poverty rate at 18.7 percent in the country is a matter of achievement, he expressed his resolve that Bangladesh would become ‘Sonar Bangla’ as dreamt by Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman with the united efforts of all.
State Minister for Planning Md Shahiduzzaman Sarker hoped that all concerned would supplement the government’s efforts in building a ‘Smart Bangladesh’ as envisioned by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
He told a questioner that the Planning Commission was cautious enough this time so that no unnecessary project is undertaken in this fresh ADP. “The ADP size this time couldn’t become much bigger than the outgoing fiscal year, which proved that we remained very cautious in project selection.”
Replying to a question, the planning minister said the ultimate goal of the government is to ensure that no one leaves behind adding that the government is trying to minimize the ‘lagging behind’ term in the development process.
According to Planning Secretary Satyajit Karmakar, the Planning Commission has been instructed by the Prime Minister to impose stringent oversight in order to improve the execution of the ADP in the upcoming fiscal year.
According to him, the goal of the budget for the upcoming fiscal year (FY25) is to ensure that fiscal and monetary policy are coordinated in order to limit inflation.
Mentioning that the proportion and percentage of aided projects remains almost same now compared to the past, Satyajit said the scope and coverage of the social safety nets would be widened further in the next fiscal year in a bid to give relief to the common people from the inflationary pressure. “It’s also aligned with the philosophy of the Prime Minister which is ‘inclusive development,”
In response to another query, he stated that while the government’s reliance on projects with foreign assistance has grown overall, it has increased in terms of volume or value.
Since the nation would be losing many of its current facilities in 2026 owing to its LDC graduation, Satyajit stated that it would be preferable for the government to use as many foreign loans and grants by that year to speed up the development process.
He noted that despite several inconsistencies between the new ADP and the 8th Five Year Plan because of the effects of COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine War, the budgetary allotments to the sectors of agriculture, health, and education have increased from the previous fiscal year.
The Planning Secretary told another questioner that the issue of changing the fiscal year is a political matter or decision.
The Prime Minister has reminded all secretaries of relevant ministries and divisions that they must take additional steps to accelerate the implementation of development projects, according to IMED Secretary Abul Kashem Md Mohiuddin.
Additionally, he disclosed that the ADP implementation rate for the current fiscal year (FY24) is 49.26 percent from July to April, compared to 50.33 percent for the same time in the previous fiscal year (FY23).
