Introduction: Bangladesh won her victory through a bloody war in 1971. During the liberation war, the physical infrastructure of the whole country was heavily damaged. The entire fabric of the society was severely jolted. It took a long spell of deep thinking to recover from this stage of silence to resilience. From such a blurred spectrum of national pschy, the history of planning and development of Bangladesh started with the constitution of the Planning Commission by a resolution of the government in January 1972. Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibar Rahman, Hon’ble Prime Minister, Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh, was the first Chairman of the Planning Commission. Mr. Tajuddin Ahamed was in-charge of the Ministry of Planning (Planning Commission). The Commission was conceived of to be a professional body at the top level. The Deputy Chairman of the Commission was given the status of a Minister without cabinet rank and the three other members were given the status of Ministers of the State . Professor Nurul Islam, an eniment economist, was inducted as the first Deputy Chairman of the Commission. Professor Musharaf Hossain, Professor Rehman Sobhan and Professor Anisur Rahman were selected as members of the Commission.

The Planning Commission was mandated to prepare national annual plans, five year plans and perspective plans for the socio-economic development of the country in accordance with the stipulated policy objectives of the government The government issued direction and determined the order of priority within the frame-work of policies and programs. The Planning Commission, in less than one year, prepared the First Five Year Plan for reconstruction and development of the infrastructure of the country taking into consideration the inescapable socio-economic and political realities of that time of the country.

Formal Initiative : The FFYP recognized the need for developing human resoures and stressed for the efficiency of administration and management. The acute shortage of manpower prompted the government to take up a training program for the civil servants. The Father of the Nation focused on the introduction of functional and coordinated training programs. Those programmes were designed to address the training needs of civil servants and technical personnel of nation building departments. Accordingly, a decision of the 'National Training Council' for the skill development of the stakeholders appeared in the horizon. Then, the training policies were laid down, needs were assessed, training contents were developed and implementation of training programs started.

Origin of the Academy: The origin of the Academy may be traced back to the felt need of a project to strengthen and improve the technical proficiency of officers in Planning and Development. The establishment of the Academy was initiated by the Public Administration Sector of the Socio-Economic Division of the Planning Commission. A development project entitled 'Development of Planning Machinery1 was taken up. Eventually, the issue of training in 'Planning and Development1 was included in the Annual Development Plan of 1980-1981. Thereafter, Mr.Md.Jainul Abedin, the then Section Officer was appointed as the Vice Principal of the proposed Academy.

Location of the Academy. The Academy, for the first time, started functioning in a hired accommodation at Aurongozeb Road, Mahammadpur, Dhaka. The present site of the Academy at Nilkhet originally belonged to a project, namely, 'Development of the National Foundation for Research on Human Resources Development1. A 3-storied building was constructed under the project by the Commission. Then, the 'Martial Law Pruning Committee' pruned the project. Later on, this building was alloted to the Academy for Planning and DevetopmenL The then Minister for Finance Mr.AMA Muhith handed over it to Mr.Md. Jainul Abedin, Vice Principal of the Academy.

Permanant Academy: The government conferred upon the Academy the Status of a permanent institution and transferred it into the revenue budget on 3rd February, 1985. Thereafter, the government ensured smooth running, supervision and control of the Academy by constituting a 15-Members Board of Governors under the Chairmanship of the Hon'ble Minister for Planning. The Director General of the Academy provides all kinds of support to this board as the member secretary.

Need Based Courses: Above all, training friendly environment and distinct characteristics of this Academy are, indeed, a matter of pride for all stakeholders. Among the courses offered by the Academy, the specialized ones are: 'Development Planning and Project Management1, 'Office Management1, 'Financial Management1, Human Resource Management1, 'Millennium Development Goals', and 'Procurement Management'. The courses already attracted the attention of the intelligentsia of they country. In every year, the Academy, on an average, accomplishes 30-35 training courses successfully.

Core Training Courses : On understanding the importance of training, the major government and the non-government organizations have correctly felt the necessity of quality training in their bid to make their own officers and staff members more trained in the competitive world. Recently, the government has redesignated the name of the Academy. Now, the Academy is known as 'National Academy for Planning and Development (NAPD)'.

At present, there are 15 'day courses' and 7 ’evening courses' in the current training calendar of the Academy. Essential courses, viz, a 10-months long 'Diploma On Development Planning1, a 6-months long specialized course on 'Project Planning and Development Management1 and 4-months long 2 courses on 'English Language Proficiency1 are being organized by the Academy on regular basis.

Present Challenges: To enhance efficiency, the only means is to concentrate on training. Since independence, the Population of the country has increased two-fold. Besides, a multi dimensional deep change has taken place in the field of science and technology. To cope up with the change, we are in dire need for attaining the technological sophistication and the ICT super speed. The famous Bengali proverb 'Coarse rice and fresh fish' is no more true today. By now, many modem gazettes of daily life have already entered into the list of common consumption of the people. Therefore, the government is confronted with the challenges of providing all the basic necessities and the modem facilities to the people. The government is firmly committed to address the demand for the people. Dhaka City already has turned into a mega city. The present population is 12 million. It has reached the peak of population growth. The government is going to launch a number of mega projects for modernization of this city. To reduce the unbearable traffic congestion, the government has taken up a decision to expand the area of the city and establish underground rail and road links including sky train services. The government immediately needs a group of skilled manpower conversant with development and technical knowledge for pre-project bilateral negotiations. After finalization of loan agreements, we need a pool of trained development activists for successful implementation of the projects. National Academy for Planning and Development is on war footing to provide all-out support to the government in realization of the dreams. An initiative is underway to get the affiliation of the University of Dhaka for introducing a 'Masters Course' on 'Development Planning and Project Management1 in this Academy. A draft Syllabus for this course has already been prepared. It is expected that the course will see the light of the sun very soon.

Dreams and Promises: It has been planned to introduce research studies leading to Ph.D degree on 'Development Planning and Project Management1 in this Academy in a near future. To run the initiative smoothly, necessary steps have been taken for placement of requisite number of Ph.D scholars in this Academy. NAPD is located in the heart of Dhaka City. Faculty members are professionally sound, mentally fit and collectively dedicated. The government is committed to improve their quality. We need a push. We are promised bound to leam and impart training to the people and serve the nation better.

Conclusion: Globalization refers to the compression of the world and the intensification of consciousness about the world as a whole. It spreads through a globe-spanning network of communication and execution. It is an ongoing process by which regional economies, societies and culture have been integrated. NAPD, as a specialized institute, may strive for attaining the status of a 'center of excellence1 in the SAARC region. We will build up our relations with the partner institutes in the region in a more meaningful way. In the long run, we hope to pronounce our existence loudly in the world of skill development, particularly, in the area of planning and development. May Almighty bless us all!

M A Kamal, Ph.D

Director General