Cut in corruption and establishment of good governance are key to achieving the goals of economic development envisaged in the budget for the year 2005-06, speakers observed at a seminar yesterday in Dhaka.

They also put emphasis on reducing disparity in distribution of resources among the people to achieve the aim of Millenium Development Goal (MDG) and poverty reduction strategy paper (PRSP).

They were speaking at a seminar titled 'Budget 2005-06 and Economic Security of Bangladesh' organised by Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (Biiss).

Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmed, chairman of Bangladesh Unnyan Parishad, and Dhaka University Prof. Abu Ahmed presented keynote papers on 'Budget and Economic Security: MDG Perspectives' and 'Budget and Economic Security: The PRSP Perspective' respectively.

Kholiquzzaman said at present 50 percent people are under poverty line. The MDG has targeted to reduce half of this poverty by 2015.

"Every year we need a 3.8 percent poverty reduction growth but unfortunately the present growth rat is only 1.5 percent," he said. "In this situation, how will be the MDG achieved?" the economist questioned.

Although primary literacy rate is 45 percent, 98 percent of it is of poor

standard, he added.

In Bangladesh, $12 is spent every year for healthcare services of an individual where a person spends $8 and the government provides $4. For standard healthcare services, according to World Health Oragnisation (WHO), the expense should be $34, he said.

Kholiquzzaman said, "To solve all these problems, revenue collection can be an effective tool. But corruption is there. All these problems are known, but no action is taken to solve them."

Regarding PRSP, Abu Ahmad said unsteady price of essential commodities is another problem in poverty alleviation. To maintain the price hike, it should be added to the PRSP, he added.