Finance Minister AMA Muhith Monday dismissed the ongoing political events as 'anti-development' activities and renewed his confidence in government's ability to tackle the adverse situation.
"This is not at all political activity -- it's anti-development act. This is how I see it. It's very unfortunate but we are quiet confident of overcoming this temporary crisis," he said at a meeting with a delegation of the Confederation of Asia-Pacific Chambers of Commerce and Industry (CACCI) at his Secretariat office.
He, however, would not give any timeframe when the crisis will be over.
Mr Muhith observed that hartal and strikes have somehow lost significance in this country.
Also terming the activities terrorism, the minister said, "We have decided that terrorists must be treated as terrorists. I am sure that we will be able to book them."
Billing 2014 as one of the best years for the country, Mr Muhith said very healthy economic and development activities were pursued throughout the year.
He said prudent policies taken earlier had helped the country to withstand difficulties of previous five years of global recession. "We were fortunate, particularly in the area of export, with pretty good export growth during the last five years. The average growth was almost 2 digits."
Elaborating on his government's success Mr Muhith said very substantial public programmes were taken during the last five years.
He lamented the country has had worst record in respect of size of the budget in Asia. "It has the smallest budget compared to gross domestic product in this whole region, smaller of course from Nepal and any other country."
"But, here we also made a little bit progress. We achieved additional resources almost 3.0 per cent of gross domestic product," he added.
But, he admitted, it did not take the country too far and the country still remained lowest in this region in size of budget.
Mr Muhith said the acquired additional resources helped the government increase public investment by 1.0 to 2.0 per cent--and most of the investments went to infrastructural development.
He mentioned that the country was experiencing tremendous electricity shortages when the present government came to power six years back. "But we could overcome the crisis in three years and power generation surpassed the demand."
The finance minister said presently the government is giving utmost importance to human development. Presently 98 per cent of school-going children are regular students. "We have a huge population. We need to educate them and train them."
He also finds the foreign direct investment in the country quiet well, though not much good compared to other regional countries.
Mr Muhith said the government could cut down poverty to 22 per cent now from 70 per cent in the 1970s.
"We take pride in it. We not only alleviated poverty but also reduced gap between rich, poor and ultra-poor. Presently, some 11 per cent people are extra-poor," he said.
The minister said his government had brought significant changes during 11 years in power in several sessions.
Speaking on the occasion, CACCI president Jemal Inaishvili said Bangladesh is a success story as the country made a huge progress. "It's completely different than what the global media portray this country."
He, however, noted business is what which is affected first when there is political unrest in the country. "The business is a biggest employer. To build business it needs years after years. But to ruin business it takes very short time."
President of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) Kazi Akram Uddin Ahmed in his speech urged the CACCI-member states to invest in Bangladesh.
FBCCI vice-president Monwara Hakim Ali, CACCI vice-president Pradeep Kumar Shrestha and Iran Chamber of Commerce and Industry member Golnaz Salahshour also spoke, among others.
syful-islam@outlook.com
