Speakers at a roundtable in the city Wednesday said the economic growth of the country could be sustained without foreign aid backing, reports BSS.
They criticised the interference of World Bank (WB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the economic management of the country.
The roundtable titled "World Bank and IMF in Bangladesh: Foreign Aid Decreasing, Policy Dependence Increasing" was organised by the Weekly Ekota at its office at Purana Paltan in the city.
Executive editor of the weekly Shahin Rahman moderated the roundtable and MM Akash presented the keynote paper. Among others, Abu Ahmed, Sahidullah Chow-dhury and journalist Syed Abul Moksud participated in the open discussion.
Akash said, our GDP growth has been increasing from the 90s, though the volume of foreign aid is decreasing compared to that period.
Presently, the country is receiving a huge amount of remittance in the US dollar from expatriate Bangladeshis, he said adding that the remittance is almost double the foreign aid. The country has almost achieved self-reliance in food production, he added.
If expatriate workers were provided with proper facilities and the country's small and medium enterprises encouraged, it would not be difficult to achieve 8 to 9 per cent GDP growth, he observed.
Economic growth could be sustained without foreign aid
FE Team | Published: August 23, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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