Economy sees turnaround on stimulus packages: PM

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday said the national economy has made a turnaround with its desired pace due to the government's timely decision to give stimulus packages to various sectors and groups during the Covid-19 pandemic, reports UNB.

"We've taken the step at the right time...we didn't think about how much money we've or what we've, we just thought about keeping our economy moving," she said.

The Prime Minister said this while speaking at the weekly Ecnec meeting held at NEC auditorium. She attended it virtually from her official residence Ganobhaban.

Sheikh Hasina said the idea behind giving the various packages to different industrial sectors, including agriculture, SMEs, heavy industries and RMG sector, and other groups like the poor, day-labourers and distressed people during the pandemic period was to keep the wheels of the economy moving.

"If we want to keep the wheels of the economy moving, we've to provide money to these sectors and groups...we've to transfer money to the hands of people," she said.

So far, the government has announced 21 stimulus packages worth USD 13.25 billion which is equivalent to 4.03 percent of the country's total GDP.

Hasina mentioned that cash incentives to various groups of mass people and sectors have helped the overall economy rebound greatly.

She said the government has given utmost importance to the agriculture sector to keep its development for improving the production of food grains so that people do not suffer from food scarcity in any way. "And we've been able to maintain that."

About the stimulus packages, the Prime Minister said the government has given incentives to businesspeople and they returned to their own businesses from the time they had started receiving those.

Another report adds: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday expressed her satisfaction at the quality of preserved rice at government warehouses.

She observed the specimens of boiled and Atap rice collected from CSD and LSD from across the country during Boro and Aman seasons, PM's Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim said.

He said that the Prime Minister asked the authorities concerned to transfer preserved rice that has been kept at the lower level at the godowns to the upper level so that those procured earlier could be distributed first.

She directed to distribute rice that was collected in 2019 on a priority basis.

Besides, she also asked the authorities to construct modern godowns to preserve food grains like the warehouse set up at Shantahar in Bogura. This will make it possible to preserve food grains longer.

The Prime Minister also directed to manage the information of rice preserved in all godowns across the country through a database, her press secretary said.

Planning Minister MA Mannan was present at that time.