& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Urgent steps to cut rice price imperative for new govt

Former ministers tell The Daily Star

JULFIKAR Au Manik and Emran Hossain
The new government should immediately undertake measures to reduce rice price for a positive impact on other commodity prices and make agriculture profitable so that fanners stick to their profession, suggest former heavyweight ministers from both Awami League and BNP.
They also suggest well coordination between the commerce and finance ministries to control the prices of essentials.
They also put emphasis on turning domestic industry more vibrant and
paying attention to industrial financing and existing weak infrastructure for industrialisation.
A former BNP minister emphasised bringing businesspersons, who left the country out of fear in the last two years, back to business to address unemploymentproblems.
Political analysts observe the new cabinet formed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina with fresh and inexperienced faces would face challenges in running their respective ministries.
Against this backdrop, The Daily Star contacted some former senior ministers from AL and BNP who talked about the primary challenges and offered sugges-
tions for the new cabinet.
AL presidium member and lawmaker Tofail Ahmed is one of the bigwigs in the party who did not find a place in the cabinet. Tofail had served as the commerce minister for the first fewyears while working as the industries minister of the previous AL government.
From his experience Tofail said: "A commerce minister cannot be successful unless the commerce and finance ministries are well-coordinated as the former requires tremendous support from the latter."
Citing an example, Tofail said the finance ministry could have helped the
SEE PAGE 2 COL 5
FROM PAGE 1 commerce ministry control commodity price by reducing duty when required.
The commerce minister should have discussions with all the business chambers and traders at first to have a clear conception of the entire sector. The top priority task of the commerce minister would be forming a good coordination with the finance ministry, he observed.
Tofail also said a lot of homework would be wise for new Commerce Minister Col (retd) Faruk Khan for smooth functioning of his ministry regarding some highly technical issues.
Another heavyweight AL lawmaker Amir Hossain Amu has also been dropped from the cabinet. He served as the food minister during the last ALgovernment.
"As people's expectations soar, the main target of the government should be to curb food prices, especially the price of rice. Prices of essentials would reduce automatically once the price of rice is under control," Amu observed.
"As soon as the new food minister takes over his office, he should have an immediate and detailed assessment of food consumption, production target and current production in the country to cope with price hike," he observed.
Agriculturist Dr Abdur Razzak is a new face in the food ministry who is a firsttime minister as well.
Amu also suggests that once the assessment is ready the government must take measures to import rice if there is a probability of shortfall in production and build a
stock to face future crisis.
He emphasizes the necessity to ensure that imported rice is well-distributed at the right time.
MK Anwar, one of two senior BNP leaders who have won the election, said though there is no scope for industrialisation by the public sector it would not be wise to totally exclude the sector.
Anwar was industries minister for a few years until he became the agriculture minister during the last BNP-Jamaat-led four-party government.
Hasina has chosen Industries Minister Dilip Barua from the left-block in her grand alliance. Barua has never been a lawmaker and is a technocrat minister in Hasina's cabinet.
From his experiences in running the industries ministry MK Anwar said as the fertiliser industry requires huge investment, the private sector stays away from it. He said the public sector should come forward in this regard.
"The interest rate for industrial financing is much higher and it is a big challenge to deal with for industrialisation," he added.
He also underlined weak infra-structure for industrialisation mentioning that supply of power and gas is not ensured in the country.
"Another challenge for the industries ministry is to ensure the infra-structural support as these issues are dealt by different ministries," he observed.
Tofail also from his experience as an industries minister suggests immediately making domestic industries vibrant, expanded and functional.
He also suggests reducing duty on raw materials besides increasing the duty on finished goods.
Tofail holds Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) as an important institution for the industries ministry.
He said the industries minister should have a clear knowledge about present status of fertiliser production and demand, probable demand and production, and should import the required quantity as soon as possible.
He said the process of import should be initiated at least six months before a certain material is required, as the import process is time consuming.
Maintaining law and order by removing extortion and criminal activities is another challenge and one of the most important things for uninterrupted industrialisation.
Talking about agriculture MK Anwar put emphasis on ensuring farmers' full-time concentration on agricultural fields.
"Nowadays farmers have the opportunity to shift their profession to many other jobs, small businesses and trades, which are more profitable. So agriculture must be made profitable to keep farmers stick to their profession." he added.
He puts importance on the necessity to reduce prices of agricultural materials through providing subsidy.
Motia Chowdhury is made the agriculture minister once again since she had successfully held die same portfolio.
"One percent agricultural land becomes non -agricultural every year due to
other usage of land. There would be no land left for agricultural use after 50 years if the trend continues," MK Anwar observed.
He prioritises efforts to keep agricultural land intact He also thinks complex problems like Farakka Barrage and climate change must be addressed.
Repeatedly stressing the importance of generating employment opportunities, former finance and planning minister Saifur Rahman suggests bringing back businessmen, who left the country in fear of backlash in last two years.
He however does not see any major crisis for the present government as prices of essentials are coming down globally.
" I don't think there will be a crisis for the new government. Everything is in their favour and there is no challenge for them as prices of essentials including rice and wheat are coming down internationally," he said.
Renowned economist AMA Muhith is the new finance minister who had the same portfolio during HM Ershad s regime.
"Only reducing the price will not bring much help for the people unless they have an income to purchase. So creating employment opportunities is important." Saifur added.
He emphasises the necessity of taking massive programmes, strengthening expansionary monitory policies and promoting investment to tackle the unemploy ment problem. He also suggests increasing energy pro duction.