Echoing the Finance Minister’s sentiment, Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Wednesday said the projected 7 percent GDP growth rate is unlikely to be achieved in the current fiscal year (FY15) for various reasons, including the political unrest over the last couple of months.
“But, the GDP growth rate in the current fiscal won’t be less than 6.5 percent,” he said.
The Planning Minister was addressing the opening day function of a two-day conference, titled ‘Towards Sustained Eradication of Extreme Poverty in Bangladesh’ as the chief guest held at the NEC conference room in the city’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagar area. Earlier on Tuesday, addressing a pre-budget meeting with the NGOs, Finance Minister AMA Muhith said 7 percent GDP growth rate in the current fiscal year is unlikely to be achieved due to the disturbances the country suffered over the last couple of months for political unrest.
“In December last, we had great expectations for 2014-15, and I had the firm belief that Bangladesh would at least come out of the 6 percent-plus digit of growth. I had the firm belief till January that the growth will surely be around 7 percent, but now I’m not sure,” Muhith said.
The targeted GDP growth rate for FY 15 was 7.3 percent.
State Minister for Finance and Planning MA Mannan, General Economics Division (GED) member of the Planning Commission Prof Dr M Shamsul Alam, Planning Division Secretary Shafiqul Azam, Planning Commission member Humayun Khalid and representatives from the development partners were present at the opening day of the conference.
Renowned economist of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) Dr Binayak Sen presented the keynote paper, titled ‘Ending extreme poverty in Bangladesh. Actions needed in the context of the Seventh Five Year Plan in Bangladesh.’
The Planning Minister said if a strong middle class could be created in the country through boosting growth in the productive sector, then generally the number of extreme poor would come down.
“The present government has set target to bring down the rate of extreme poor people in the country to three percent by 2021. The government is obviously accountable to eradicate poverty,” he said.
Terming poverty as an enemy, Mustafa Kamal said there is no alternative to education and good management for eradicating poverty. He said the Ministry of Planning is giving utmost priority to these issues before undertaking any new development project.
The Planning Minister said the poverty reduction policy or strategy must reflect the goodwill of government as well as the people’s participation. Besides, the researchers would have to give specific recommendations which would help reach the desired goal and reducing the country’s poverty at the fastest possible time.
In his keynote presentation, Dr Binayak Sen showed that reaching the middle-income status is possible and feasible in Bangladesh before eradication of poverty and extreme poverty, but it may sideline the policy emphasis on poverty eradication.
He said, India, Pakistan and Nigeria are all middle-income countries with persistent poverty and social MDG and SDG problems. Hence, policy emphasis should be on reaching the middle-income target with zero extreme poverty.
Binayak Sen also suggested a tie-in with upcoming Seventh Five Year Plan, Vision 2021, SDGs and the NSSS, and said the role of the Development Partners in rolling policy dialogue, signal to planning, finance that the development partners would actively support the government of Bangladesh’s policy and practice in five-year plan and Annual Development Programmes.
Finally, he suggested setting up of a permanent secretariat for extreme poverty eradication in GED supported by the Development Partners.
