The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

The revised Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP-II) is going to get the main focus in Bangladesh Development Forum (BDF) 2010, a consortium of international development partners which will meet in Dhaka on February 15-16.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the two-day event at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the city.

"To attract more external resources and support will be the purpose of the forum meet," Economic Relations Division (ERD) Secretary Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan at a joint press conference said.

"The revised PRSP, reflecting the new development paradigm, will also be the core document of the Forum. Discussions on the strategy paper, especially about its implementation process and the relevant government policies, will get priority," he said.

"The Cabinet has approved revised PRSP as the core document in the upcoming forum as the government preferred an extended consultation," he said.

Bangladesh is hosting the donors' meeting, after a pause of over four years, to seek assistance from the donors to execute its election pledges. The meeting used to take place in Paris from 1997 as 'Paris Consortium Meeting' until 2002. It was moved to Bangladesh from 2003 and took the present name, BDF.

It would be the first during the tenure of the present government. Earlier in November 2005, there was a meeting held in the capital titled 'PRS Implementation Forum'.

As a side event, a development fair will be held on the Bangabandhu Conference Centre premises where some 40 stalls will showcase the advances of Bangladesh in various sectors. Apart from the government, there will be stalls from the development partners, NGOs and private sectors.

DFID country representative Chris Austin also addressed the press conference from the donors' side. ERD Joint Secretary Salahuddin Akbar was present.

Mosharraf said the Government needs to show development programmes and demonstrate its capacity to attract more external resources. "That's why we need to show our achievements and these will be reflected in the forum."

The ERD Secretary said that this revised PRSP will link the upcoming five-year plan of the government and, at the same time, will link with the Vision-2021 of the Government.

DFID country representative Chris Austin, who is also the co-chair of the Local Consultative Group (LCG) executive committee, said, "We are delighted that the Government is convening the BDF. We are looking forward to the discussions which will set up the development priorities of the Government for the next four to five years."

Asked about their views regarding the energy sector to be discussed in the forum, Austin said, "We are very pleased that the Government put this as one of the priorities --- there will be discussion on supply of power at national grid level and in rural and urban areas."

Answering to a question, he said that they tried to ensure mutual accountability in the implementation of any assistance as the source of funding comes from the taxpayers' money.

To another question, he said that Bangladesh is not in a desperate financial strait and there have been a lot of achievements, including the achievement of around 6% growth rate over the last few years.

"We will develop our partnership with the government's plan," he said.

The ERD, on behalf of the government, is jointly organising the Forum in collaboration with the Local Consultative Group (LCG) (donors' forum) that includes the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the United Nations (UN), DFID, USAID, Canadian Sida and Denmark.

Besides, representatives from the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), Kuwait Fund, UAE, India and China will be invited to the international meet of the Forum, previously known as Paris Consortium.

There will be six business sessions on development strategies, governance and human development, including PRSP-II, five-year plan, governance, health and education, energy and power, agriculture, food security and water resources, environment and climate change, transport and communications, digital Bangladesh and ICT.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith will chair all the business sessions while few Ministers and Advisers are also invited as guest of honour.

The Finance Minister will also hold a brief session on February 16 about the outcome of the two-day conference where efforts will be made to reach consensus on some key issues concerning the country's development through addressing the task of poverty alleviation along the way.