The next round of Bangladesh Development Forum scheduled to take place next week is expected to come up with a comprehensive communique based on agreement between the government and development partners in some key sectors.
The communique would outline some actionable roadmaps for next few years in areas where government-development partner collaboration would be critical in next few years, a high official of Economic Relations Division (ERD) told the FE this week.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will open the two-day mega forum that is scheduled to take place from January 17-18 at a city hotel. The last BDF took place in the capital back in November 2015.
"The latest BDF is taking place at an opportune time when the mid-term review of the 7th Five-Year Plan and the implementation of SDGs is underway,"ERD Secretary Kazi Shofiqul Azam told the FE.
"As such, the forum is expected to discuss the implementation review of the five-year plan and SDGs,"he added.
So much importance these issues of five-year plan and SDGs are getting that the keynote session of the mega forum will be themed on 'Implementation of the 7th FYP and the SDGs: Challenges and the Way Forward'.
Spanning between FY 2015-16 and FY 2019-20, the 7th Five-Year Plan was aimed at creating 13 million jobs in the country while accelerating GDP growth to 8 per cent.
As per the official figures, the resource envelope needed for implementation of the FYP will be Tk 31.9 trillion (US$ 409 billion) at FY2016 prices -- an estimated 78 per cent of which would come from private investments while 22 per cent from public investments.
The event also comes just months after the government adopted a financing strategy for the SDGs -- around US$ 928 billion worth of additional resources is estimated to be required over next thirteen years for achieving the 17 SDGs.
Of the amount, around $ 96.68 billion has to come through foreign direct investment while around $ 35.69 billion has to be channelled through foreign aid and grants.
On an average, an additional US$ 2.55 billion in foreign aid and grants would be required for implementation of the SDGs in Bangladesh. Therefore, it is understandable that the issue of SDG financing would be a central focus in the upcoming BDF.
Apart from the aforementioned keynote session, the two-day forum would also feature eight thematic sessions covering the areas of agriculture, climate change adaptation, private sector development, quality education, skill enhancement, SDGs financing, health, reducing violence, women empowerment, sustainable urbanisation and LDC graduation.
It is notable that all these thematic areas directly or indirectly involve the sectors where Bangladesh depends substantially on overseas technical and financial assistance.
Insiders also observe that the issue of LDC graduation is a timely one which needs to be focused extensively during the upcoming BDF.
Bangladesh, at current trend, is expected to officially come out of LDC status by 2024.
As per the UN provisions, inclusion and graduation of LDCs are based on three criteria: per-capita gross national income, human assets, and economic vulnerability to external shocks.
Bangladesh has already reached necessary threshold levels for Economic Vulnerability Index and Human Asset Index while it is expecting to meet the threshold of Gross National Income by this year.
The LDC graduation review takes place every three years. As per the current provisions, a country needs to be eligible in two consecutive reviews before any recommendation is made.
Therefore, Bangladesh will have to meet these same criteria again in 2021 to be recommended for graduating from the LDC status.
Experts, however, have long noted that the loss of LDC status at graduation may give rise to potentially important economic costs due to withdrawal of GSP facilities from the European Union, Canada, Japan, Australia and other markets. "However, we are already doing some early analysis about what strategies the country would adopt in post-LDC era", the ERD secretary said.
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