Debapriya Bhattacharya, head of the committee for preparing the ‘White Paper on the State of Bangladesh Economy’, on Tuesday said that the foundations of different projections made by the Awami League over the past 15 years were very weak.
Those who made the projections were hapless, Debapriya told reporters while updating activities of the committee in a briefing at the planning commission in Dhaka.
They provided such projections because of pressure, added Debapriya, also a distinguished fellow of the local think-tank Centre for Policy Dialogue.
He said that the committee would describe the unexpected issues in detail in its paper to be compiled in the next two months.
The interim government led by Professor Muhammad Yunus, which assumed power after the AL regime was toppled by a student-led mass uprising on August 5, appointed the committee to prepare the white paper on the country’s overall economy facing pressures over the past two years.
Debapriya noted that the projections on the basis of weak foundations had been highlighted by most of government ministries and entities during meetings with committees over the past one month.
On the day, the committee had meetings with 24 ministries and entities, he said and added that they would hold meetings with Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics regarding the calculation of the national annual income and the gross domestic product.
Debapriya said that the calculation of inflation would also get prominence during the meeting.
He also said that they were getting good responses from the citizens regarding opinions the committee sought on 15 issues.
Opinions were sought on the following issues: accuracy and dependency on government statistics, challenge of macro-economy, review of growth in gross domestic product, inflation and its shocks, poverty, inequality and danger, internal revenue mobilisation, fixing priorities on public expenditure, balance of foreign debt and its threshold, review of mega projects, actual picture of banking sector, situation in the energy and power sector, business-environment and private sector investment, illegal money and its smuggling, youth employment and dynamics of the labour market, overseas job market and rights of the expatriate Bangladeshi workers.
