This year saw an outstanding achievement by the Planning Commission (PC), with a number of plans being formulated to bring the country under the middle-income category by 2021. In 2015, the PC formulated the Seventh Five-Year Plan (SFYP), the National Social Security Strategy (NSSS), the Bangladesh progress report on SAARC Development Goals, the Bangladesh report on Millennium Development Goals, and the Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100. Prof. Dr Shamsul Alam, member of the commission’s general economic division (senior secretary), said Bangladesh was ahead of India and Pakistan on different economic indicators this year. The macro-economic situation of Bangladesh was also stable compared with previous years.
Bangladesh’s social indicators such as gender equality, women’s empowerment, mortality rate, life expectancy, immunisation, etc., are remarkably better than India’s, Prof. Alam said. Acceleration of growth, as well as improved distribution of income with a view to accelerating the pace of poverty reduction and job creation, will be emphasised in the SFYP. The Sixth Plan document was comprehensive and provided a good balance of thematic, macro and sectoral balance. Priorities that have been identified for SFYP are: creating an investment-friendly environment by reducing constraints identified by investors, a stable exchange rate, tax modernisation plan to make up the shortfall in public investment, to determine the cost price of electricity and fuel, the amount of subsidy rationalisation, to take steps to bring the restructuring and mobility of public-private partnerships, promoting knowledge of human resources to develop technology, develop the non-apparel export sector’s incentive structure by applying the positive experience gained from the industry’s exports, reviewing agricultural strategy to exploit export potentiality, developing price policy, providing better incentives for farmers, more emphasis on rural infrastructure, diversification in agricultural sector to increase investment in livestock and fisheries sectors, to determine the right strategy for small and medium industries, to identify infrastructure constraints, developing specific techniques to determine specific solutions for increasing exports in ICT and health and education-related services.
To reduce poverty, the government has formulated the National Social Security Strategy (NSSS) this year. It has conceived of the social safety net programmes as a tool for poverty alleviation and human resource development. Short-term goals for the coming five years and long-term goals up to 2026 have been set in the strategy.
The PC has reviewed the SAARC Development Goals and published the latest record of SAARC Development Goals and achievements of the government for the second time. The report highlights the improvement of the quality of primary teaching, gender equality in primary and secondary schools, and bringing down mortality rate.
The latest publication of the Bangladesh Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Progress Report 2015 shows that Bangladesh has already met some targets like reducing headcount ratio and poverty gap ratio, attaining gender parity at primary and secondary levels of education, reducing under-five mortality rate, containing HIV infection with increasing access to anti-retroviral drugs, detection and cure of TB under DOTS, etc.
The experience of implementing the MDGs and the lessons learnt are expected to be helpful in the implementation of new goals and targets set for the post-2015 development agenda.
Reducing vulnerability to negative impact of disasters and the risk due to climate change are the greatest challenges for the development of Bangladesh.
To tackle these challenges, the government has initiated the formulation of a long-term (50 to 100 years) integrated and holistic plan for Bangladesh Delta, known as Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100, with financial and technical assistance from the government of the Netherlands.
It is aimed at realising a sustainable and commonly-agreed-upon strategy with relevant stakeholders, for an optimum level of water governance and food security, as well as sustained economic growth for the country, and a framework for its implementation time to time.
The General Economics Division of the Bangladesh Planning Commission had initiated formulation of this mega plan in March 2014. It is expected to be completed in December 2015.