Macro-economic scene to be under PM's scrutiny Jan 27
Thursday, 21 January 2010
FHM Humayan Kabir
The Prime Minister would review the macro-economic situation in the first half of the current fiscal in the last week of January to have an overview of the ways to Bangladesh's development by achieving eight per cent growth by 2013, officials said Tuesday.
Finance ministry officials said the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is expected to sit with the ministries and divisions on January 27 to have a picture of their half yearly progress and achievement reports on different macro-economic indicators.
The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) asked the finance ministry to submit the progress and achievement reports on different macro-economic indicators that would be analysed at the meeting.
"The PM has taken the initiative to remove bottlenecks and challenges in the path to achieving a double-digit growth within a decade enabling the country to graduate into a middle-income one by 2021," a senior finance ministry official told the FE.
He said revenue collection, development and non-development expenditures, revenue spending, deficits and surpluses, loan from the domestic and foreign sources, import and export volumes and foreign aid commitment and disbursement in July-December period this fiscal would be evaluated.
"It will be very important event for the economy as the overall macro-economic scenario will be examined. This meeting will facilitate Bangladesh's step towards the higher economic growth cutting down extreme poverty," the official said.
The meeting will also help the ministries and divisions get a direction on giving boost to the national economic growth that has been sustained at a rate of over 5.5 per cent on an average up from the last seven years' since 2002-03 fiscal.
The country's earnings and the budgetary expenditure have always performed bad during the first half of the financial year and got a boost in the second half.
"The review meeting centring the PM will play a significant role in rejuvenating the ailing ministries and divisions thus prompting them to infuse dynamism into their capacity and efficiency in achieving the double-digit growth," the finance ministry official said.
The national board of revenue (NBR) has earned Tk 216.17 billion revenue in July-November period out of the total Tk 610.00 billion target in the current fiscal year.
According to observers, the ministries and divisions, said to be mostly inefficient, have spent only 28 per cent of the Tk 305 billion annual development programme (ADP) budget during first half of FY 2010. This kind of poor public investment record cerates impediments to the infrastructure development, the key tool for economic growth, they added.
The foreign aid flow has picked up in the second quarter of this fiscal coming out of the poor condition that prevailed in the first quarter as the donors disbursed US$1.28 billion worth of assistance during July-December period.
The finance ministry official said the meeting with the Prime Minister would gear up development activities of the government in a bid to lift Bangladesh to the rank of a middle-income country.
The Prime Minister would review the macro-economic situation in the first half of the current fiscal in the last week of January to have an overview of the ways to Bangladesh's development by achieving eight per cent growth by 2013, officials said Tuesday.
Finance ministry officials said the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is expected to sit with the ministries and divisions on January 27 to have a picture of their half yearly progress and achievement reports on different macro-economic indicators.
The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) asked the finance ministry to submit the progress and achievement reports on different macro-economic indicators that would be analysed at the meeting.
"The PM has taken the initiative to remove bottlenecks and challenges in the path to achieving a double-digit growth within a decade enabling the country to graduate into a middle-income one by 2021," a senior finance ministry official told the FE.
He said revenue collection, development and non-development expenditures, revenue spending, deficits and surpluses, loan from the domestic and foreign sources, import and export volumes and foreign aid commitment and disbursement in July-December period this fiscal would be evaluated.
"It will be very important event for the economy as the overall macro-economic scenario will be examined. This meeting will facilitate Bangladesh's step towards the higher economic growth cutting down extreme poverty," the official said.
The meeting will also help the ministries and divisions get a direction on giving boost to the national economic growth that has been sustained at a rate of over 5.5 per cent on an average up from the last seven years' since 2002-03 fiscal.
The country's earnings and the budgetary expenditure have always performed bad during the first half of the financial year and got a boost in the second half.
"The review meeting centring the PM will play a significant role in rejuvenating the ailing ministries and divisions thus prompting them to infuse dynamism into their capacity and efficiency in achieving the double-digit growth," the finance ministry official said.
The national board of revenue (NBR) has earned Tk 216.17 billion revenue in July-November period out of the total Tk 610.00 billion target in the current fiscal year.
According to observers, the ministries and divisions, said to be mostly inefficient, have spent only 28 per cent of the Tk 305 billion annual development programme (ADP) budget during first half of FY 2010. This kind of poor public investment record cerates impediments to the infrastructure development, the key tool for economic growth, they added.
The foreign aid flow has picked up in the second quarter of this fiscal coming out of the poor condition that prevailed in the first quarter as the donors disbursed US$1.28 billion worth of assistance during July-December period.
The finance ministry official said the meeting with the Prime Minister would gear up development activities of the government in a bid to lift Bangladesh to the rank of a middle-income country.