The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, Dhaka

Finance Adviser Dr Mirza Azizul Islam yesterday recognized that he would have been happy had he been able to pull down the inflation to 3-4 percent and push up the economic growth to 7-8 percent during the last two years of the caretaker government.

He, however, expressed satisfaction over the success that the inflation has been below the level of the neighbouring countries and the GDP declined much less than other countries in view of the current global situation and three natural disasters at home last year.

"The success and failure are relative terms," said the Finance Adviser, replying to a question at a press conference at National Economic Council (NEC) auditorium, marking the release of a document titled "Recent Economic Situation of Bangladesh: Achievement and Challenges".

Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Salehuddin Ahmed, Finance Secretary Dr Mohammed Tareque, NBR Chairman Muhammad Abdul Mazid, Planning Secretary Jafar Ahmed Chowdhury and ERD Secretary Md. Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan were present.

Dr Aziz said the country's economy has got a strong foundation which, he believes, would not plunge below 6 percent level during the current fiscal year despite the global financial crisis.

If the global recession lingers and deepens, he said, the economy would be affected posing 16-point challenges for the economy that will have be dealt with by the next governments.

The challenges included increasing public investment to face the impact of global recession, strong monitoring on ADP implementation, further increase in energy and power sector investment, continuation and enhancement of social safety net programmes, expanding tax and VAT net, ensuring austerity and maintaining balance between budget income and expenditure.

The other challenges are investment of saved money from fuel oil imports, increasing fund for climate change impacts, reducing regional disparities, giving priority to human resources development and information technology, considering favourable policy for capital machinery and investment-oriented imports, and continuation of financial sector reforms, including government-owned banking sector.