Photo: Collected
The final report of the committee formed for the preparation of "white paper" on Bangladesh's economy will be submitted to the chief adviser on Sunday (1 December), said Debapriya Bhattacharya. Debapriya, who is the chairman of the committee, made the statement at a seminar on Current Economic Situation and Launching of Open Budget Survey 2023 Results jointly organised by the Economic Reporters' Forum (ERF) and Research and Policy Integration for Development (RAPID) today.
He also said, the findings will be disclosed to the public through a press conference on 2 December.
Dr Debapriya Bhattacharjee also raised the question of why wealth earned through corruption and plundering is yet to be confiscated."If we can't return people their wealth from the mountain of corruption, what kind of revolution did we have?" he asked.
Tax collection will also get positive momentum if wealth earned through corruption can be returned to the public, he added.
Mentioning doubts of donors and investors he said, "Donors and foreign investors have invested in many big projects, and they are worried if these projects will continue. They want to understand how Bangladesh will remain connected with the global economy in the coming days," the economist said.
While proposing a meeting between donors and the government in January, Debapriya recommended to create a forum titled "Forum for Inclusive and Sustainable Development" within the next two months.
"The forum can be created to bring back relief among the donors and investors. Priority has to be given on five aspects, the first of which is controlling inflation. The other aspects are finding out the problems associated with individual investment, solving the energy crisis, completing projects quickly by removing the barriers of government financing and taking effective steps to ensure proper tax collection," Debapriya added.
If economic stability and security cannot be provided, the governments goals will not be fulfilled. During the event, the economist proposed to present reports on what the government has done to assure people till now and what they will do in the next six months.
Messenger/JRTarek
