BSS, Dhaka :
Bangladesh’s largest ever national budget for 2014-2015 is coming up with specific targets and guidelines keeping in view further poverty alleviation leading this South Asian nation to become a middle income country by 2021.
To keep pace with the global trend of development in all key economic sectors, the government is framing up the Taka 2.5 lakh crore new budget fixing an ambitious 7.3 percent GDP growth with inflation rate to be kept at 7 percent.
This oversized fiscal document foresees a long-term steady development process in line with the 6th five-year plan. Although several economists find the next year’s budget a challenge in the face of a few predicted factors, the government as part of its committed focus expects an appreciable rise in investment from both domestic and foreign sources.
To further bring down the poverty level from the existing 26 percent through creation of job, the government kept big projects on the priority list in the new budget for implementation over the years to come.
Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith is to announce the budget for 2014-15 in the Jatiya Sangsad on June 5, the first in the second consecutive five-year term of the popular government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
The salient features of the new budget include enhanced patronization of the productive sectors with continued incentive as next year’s fiscal policy is to protect the interest of local industries, keeping the progressive liberal trade and investment polices unhindered.
Despite intense global recession and stiff challenges from adversaries at home in 2009-2013, Bangladesh’s poverty level came down to 26 percent from inherited 40 percent. “We have put our economy on a solid footing to free Bangladesh from poverty, illiteracy, terrorism and militancy,” Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told a foreign delegate.
To improve the common people’s living, the government in 2009-2013 expanded the social safety net programme and ensured food security through its pragmatic and time-befitting decisions. The country’s performance in attaining the MDGs has been widely acclaimed at home and abroad.
The World Bank in 2013 predicted that Bangladesh would reach its first Millennium Development Goal, that of poverty reduction, two years ahead of the 2015 deadline. According to the BBS 2010 household survey, 17.6 percent of the population was found to be under the poverty line.
The Country Assistance Strategy of the World Bank for FY11-14 is supporting the government’s vision of rapid poverty reduction and middle-income country status through accelerated, sustainable and inclusive growth, underpinned by stronger governance at the central and local levels.
To see better outcomes, the World Bank’s strategy seeks to scale up on-going operations with demonstrable results, engage in larger and more strategic interventions with a transformative impact and innovate through small pilots with strong country ownership.
