& 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

Muhith blames Khaleda for lower growth

Staff Correspondent
Finance Minister AMA Muhith yesterday blamed BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia and her party for this fiscal year's lower economic growth.
He said private investment faced serious setbacks at the beginning of the fiscal year (July 2013) due to frequent hartals and violence.
He was addressing the inaugural session of a workshop, "Development Challenges of Bangladesh: Where are the news stories?" jointly organised by the World Bank (WB) and Economic Reporters' Forum atSonargaon Hotel.
"Hartal is intolerable; it must be prevented at any cost," said Muhith, "Otherwise, there won't be investment."
The WB has projected this fiscal year's economic growth at 5.4 percent, lower than the average growth rate of 6.24 percent in the last 10 years. The Asian Development Bank has forecast the growth at 5.6 percent.
The minister also talked on different development issues, including private investment, energy and infrastructure constraints, the construction of the Dhaka-Chittagong highway, building quality manpower and external assistance.
He said Bangladesh needs to increase production in the manufacturing sector in the interest of economic growth.
"But without investment, you cannot increase your growth rate," the finance minister mentioned.
Muhith said the investment-GDP ratio has stood at 24-26 percent for a decade. Though public investment has increased nearly 1 percentage point in 5 years, private investment has declined this year, he said.
About the delay in the construction of the Dhaka-Chittagong highway, Muhith said the project had never been short of money, but contractors failed to execute the work.
"Our supervision was wrong and this failure will cease to exist anymore," he said. The minister hinted that the project would be completed in a couple of years.
Muhith said the quality of manpower will get focus in the coming budget. Inflow of remittances will not increase unless quality manpower is exported, he noted.
On external assistance, the finance minister said it had come down significantly over the years. At present, Bangladesh gets around 1.6 percent of its GDP as foreign aid.
"Considering the population and poverty, we deserve much more, close to 3 percent of GDP," said Muhith.
Christine E Kimes, acting country director of the World Bank in Dhaka, said Bangladesh needed to identify its priorities.
She said the WB had so far provided Bangladesh $18 billion for development work since 1971, and another $2.7 billion aid-deal is in the pipeline.
Prof Wahiduddin Mahmud, two lead economists of WB, Zahid Hussain and Salman Zaidi, Arastoo Khan, additional secretary of the Economic Relations Division, and Moazzem Hossain, editor of The Financial Express, spoke on different economic aspects at the training workshop.