Sustainable dev strategy for BD gets govt nod to march ahead with growth

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FE Report The government Tuesday approved the National Sustainable Development Strategy (NSDS) for Bangladesh to continue with economic growth by meeting environmental and global economic challenges. Presided over by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the National Economic Council (NEC) at a meeting at the city's Planning Commission endorsed the strategy paper for 2011--2021. The NSDS will guide Bangladesh on how it will march ahead towards sustainable economic growth even braving the challenges of the global financial meltdown and environmental impacts, officials said. Bangladesh has set the target to become a middle-income country by 2021, when it needs to achieve a double-digit growth. "The NSDS will help the country achieve the targeted economic growth," said member of the General Economic Division (GED) Professor Shamsul Alam. General Economic Division of the Planning Commission has prepared the policy document, emphasising sustainable economic growth, environmental safety, and ensuring social justice. The NSDS is framed being based on the long-term development vision of the country, the Sixth Five Year Plan FY 2011-2015, the Perspective Plan of Bangladesh 2010-2021 and other existing plans, policies, and strategies of the government. Prof Shamsul Alam said, "Since the country could face external shocks and environmental impact any time, we have framed the strategy paper where some suggestions were made on how we can overcome the challenges." The NSDS (2011-21) has identified five strategic priority areas along with some cross-cutting fields with a view to achieving its stated vision and addressing long-term sustainability issue in critical areas. The five strategic priority areas are sustained economic growth, development of priority sectors, urban environment, social security and protection, environment, natural resources and disaster management, while the cross-cutting areas are good governance, gender, and disaster risk reduction and climate change. According to the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Brazil in 1992, Bangladesh is committed to taking such a strategy to achieve the goals. Later, the Rio+5 conference, held in 1997, and the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) held in 2000, also stressed formulating NSDS. Finally, the member-countries of the United Nations (UN) reached an agreement at the Rio+20 held at Rio de Janeiro in Brazil and underscored how these goals could be achieved.