PM alerts planners on proper pvt univ edn monitoring

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina asked development planners Tuesday to bring private university education under proper monitoring and regulatory framework to ensure quality education, officials said.
She also asked for enhancing investment in research to enhance the quality of education in the country, they added.
Her observations came a day after a row was over through withdrawal of the VAT the government had levied on private university tuition fees following student protests.       
The prime minister made the suggestions to the General Economics Division (GED) of the Planning Commission when its authorities apprised her of the newly-drafted Seventh Five-Year Plan (SFYP) that encompasses financial years 2015-16 to 2020.
GED Member Prof Shamsul Alam made a power-point presentation on the draft of the national development recipe before the Prime Minister at the Planning Commission.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith, Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed, Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, Agriculture Minister Begum Matia Chowdhury and high officials of the PC also attended the meeting.
The GED has drafted the 7th FYP with the prime aim of taking Bangladesh's economic growth onto 8.0 per cent trajectory in the terminal year (FY2020) of its implementation.
A senior official who attended Tuesday's meeting told the FE that the PM asked the GED to reflect the election manifesto of the ruling party in the national development agenda as they are accountable to the people.
In another suggestion, she directed incorporating strategy that ensures skilled manpower development for their overseas employment.
The GED in the draft FYP has projected export of 0.4 million skilled and semi-skilled manpower every year during its implementation period till FY2020.
The official said the PM suggested that the GED devise the plan so that it could ensure growth of Bangladesh's food-processing industry.
"Since Bangladesh is an agrarian country, its agricultural sector would have to get priority in the development plan, and expansion of its support industry is imperative," she was quoted as saying.
The PM also suggested that the development planners project the private-sector contribution in addition to the public-sector one to the gross domestic product (GDP).
Usually, government in its macroeconomic calculations projects the public- sector contribution only.
According to the drafted SFYP, Bangladesh will require Tk 31.9 trillion in investment to implement the agenda in order to boost the economic growth to 8.0 per cent by FY2020.
GED officials said some Tk 28.85 trillion or 90.4 per cent of the total required investment had been projected to come from domestic resources while Tk 3.05 trillion or 9.6 per cent from external sources.
The proposed development blueprint is expected to get a boost mainly from the private-sector contribution as it is proposed to invest 77.3 per cent of the total money required.
The private sector is expected to contribute Tk 24.65 trillion out of the total Tk 31.90-trillion funds to lift the GDP to the cherished level, said a GED official.
In a bid to take the economic growth up over 8.0 per cent and cut the current incidence of poverty down to 15 per cent, the 7th development blueprint of the country will be executed.
The government earlier framed the Perspective Plan 2010-2021 targeting double-digit growth by 2021. As per the plan, the government prepared the 6th FYP which ended last fiscal (FY2015). The 7th FYP will be implemented in the next 5 years till FY2020.
According to the draft SFYP, Bangladesh's economy will grow at 7.0 per cent rate in the current FY2016, then 7.2 per cent in FY2017, 7.4 per cent in FY2018, 7.6 per cent in FY2019 and 8.0 per cent in FY2020.
The proposed 7th FYP has projected 3.6 million job creation at home and abroad in the next fiscal (FY2016).
In the terminal year of the plan, the development blueprint has projected generation of 4.0 million jobs.
The government has targeted to boost the investment-GDP ratio to 34.4 from the current nearly 29 per cent, the draft report says.
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