Govt plans to turn BD into a developed state by 2041: PM

FE Team | Published: March 20, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

With the implementation of 6th Five-Year Plan and 7th Five-Year Plan from 2015-16 to 2019-20, Bangladesh would be able to fulfil the conditions of becoming a middle income country by 2021 on the basis of further rise in per capita income and Human Asset Index, report agencies.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina expressed this firm hope on Wednesday when she was replying to a question from treasury bench member M Abdul Latif in parliament during the Prime Minister's question- answer session.
"Bangladesh will go ahead to a larger extent to become an industrially developed nation with the implementation of the 6th Five- Year Plan and the 7th Five- Year Plan from 2015-16 to 2019- 20," she told the questioner.
In this respect, Sheikh Hasina said, the government has already started formulation of a long-term perspective plan with an aim to turn Bangladesh into a developed country by 2041 as envisioned in her party's election manifesto.
"In the year 2041, Bangladesh will become a peaceful, prosperous and developed country as dreamt by Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman," the Prime Minister added.
She said the government has been offering various facilities to further promote local and foreign investment in setting up industries in private sector under the "National Industrial Policy- 2010." Foreign investors are getting various facilities under "The Foreign Private Investment (Promotion and Protection), she added.
The government is maintaining the existing region basis tax- holiday facilities for investment in the country, she said, adding that investment by Non-Resident Bangladeshis NRB) is considered as foreign investment.
She said the contribution of industrial sector to the national economy had increased to 32 per cent in 2012-13 fiscal year from 29 per cent in 2005-06 fiscal year while the contribution of agriculture came down to 18.7 per cent from 21.8 per cent. The average growth of industrial sector was 8.2 per cent during the four-party alliance government, which rose to 9 per cent in 2012-13 fiscal year, she added.
There will be no rental power plants in Bangladesh once there are larger plants for producing electricity, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said.
The assurance comes amid widespread criticism about the massive subsidies that go into the rental plants.
"We will not need rentals once we have bigger plants," Hasina told Parliament on Wednesday. "But we will have to keep them as long as they are needed."