Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has asked the authorities concerned to stress more on utilizing the untapped potentials of the blue economy.
The prime minister gave the directive while chairing a meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) held at the NEC Conference Room in Dhaka's Sher-e-Bangla Nagar on Tuesday. Ministers, state ministers, Planning Commission members and secretaries concerned attended the meeting.
LaterPlanning Minister MA Mannan and State Minister for Planning Dr Shamsul Alam briefed reporters about the outcome of the meeting.
The planning minister said the meeting approved a total of 11 projects involving an overall estimated cost of Tk13,655.98 crore. "Of the total project cost, Tk3,129.87 crore will come from the government and the rest, Tk10,526.11 crore, as project assistance”
Dr Alam said the issue of the blue economy mainly came to the forefront when the government was framing the Delta Plan 2100.
He said a separate chapter has been dedicated to the blue economy in the Delta Plan, adding that they also proposed earlier for launching a blue bond to bridge the funding gap for materializing the Delta Plan 2100 since the issuance of such kind of bond could be attractive and that many countries have also issued it.
The state minister noted that although many years have elapsed since the country's maritime boundary verdict, the progress towards tapping into the blue economy is not so much due to a lack of coordinated efforts to some extent. He also said a Delta Wing is also being formed to expedite the process.
General Economics Division (GED) Member of the Planning Commission Dr Md Kawser Ahmed said the prime minister is not in favour of forming a separate ministry on the blue economy.
He said they are framing a report on how to institutionalize the initiative of the blue economy and how to add the contributions of such an economy to the GDP.
The planning minister said the prime minister was apprised of the summary of the latest Household Income and Expenditure Survey which will be unveiled on Wedneday.
Mannan said the prime minister was happy to see the outcomes of the report, especially the downward trend of the poverty rate despite the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine War.
Regarding the issue of uncounted contributions of the womenfolk to the GDP, the prime minister said this is not acceptable as the contributions especially the household contributions of women had been added, then the GDP would have been much higher.
He said women usually do many works like washing clothes and cooking, adding that the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) has been directed in this regard to do some work.
Shedding light on this issue, Dr Alam said the BBS estimates the GDP following the system of national accounts in light of the Statistical Commission of the United Nations.
Due to limitations in the international formula, he suggested forming a shadow satellite account and thus estimating the contributions of the women through pricing their labour in financial terms.
Turning to the issue of building sluice gates in the haor regions, the planning minister said the premier has expressed her concerns about such infrastructures and asked the authorities concerned to come out gradually from building such sluice gates.
Sheikh Hasina also directed the authorities not to construct any permanent roads in the haor region but rather construct all-weather roads.
While repairing flood-affected roads, she directed the LGRD minister for building culverts in those areas of the roads where the pressure of water was immense.
The planning minister said the prime minister has also directed the Secondary and Higher Education Directorate as well as the Technical and Madrasah Education Division to prioritize the orphans of Shishu Poribar in imparting technical education.
When asked whether the price hike of fertilizer would put an impact on inflation, Mannan said there might be an impact, but it is not possible right at the moment to determine the extent of that impact.
Supplementing the planning minister, Dr Alam said there will be no impact of this if there is a high yield of food grains.
Replying to a question, Mannan said the prime minister is not in favour of recruiting many consultants in development projects as the local human resources have improved a lot.
He also said the trend of incorporating consultants in the projects will decline in the coming days.
Answering another question, Planning Division Secretary Satyajit Karmakar said the project for constructing Chancery Complex in Islamabad has been revised again since there has been huge inflation in Pakistan side by side the government of Bangladesh wants to make it more scenic and a flagship project.
Of the approved 11 projects, seven are new while four others are revised.
