Staff Correspondent

Press Secretary to the Chief Adviser Shafiqul Alam (Senior Secretary) today termed it as ‘miracle’ the way the interim government has lifted the economy to the current position from a ‘very fragile’ condition just after the ouster of the Awami League government.

“The interim government had inherited an economy which was ‘very fragile’ and also on the verge of collapse…from that position the economy has been brought into a position over the last six months …I would say it as a ’miracle’,” he said.

The Press Secretary was addressing the ‘Development Journalist Forum of Bangladesh (DJFB) Talk’ held at the NEC Conference Room in the city’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagar area.

He said, “If you see the figures in true sense, the way Bangladesh’s economy has made a comeback is a ‘miracle’” he added.

Mentioning that the main igniter of the economy is energy, Shafiqul said unless it is fixed, no economy can become efficient.

Alleging that the previous AL regime had tried to fix the energy system in a hurry which led to the creation of serious looting and plundering, he said the entire system like capacity charge was an arrangement for dacoity.

He alleged that the previous AL regime had developed such a revenue system where the tax-GDP ratio was only 7.3 percent before their ouster while the advanced economies witnesses tax GDP ratio even at 12, 14 to 20 percent.

“If the tax-GDP ratio is not increased, then how come the development initiatives will expedite?” he said adding that such projects were undertaken during the AL regime which were literary utter wastage of fund.

“Ours is not a lavish economy where every penny matters,” he said.

Shafiqul Alam said independent panelists showed that every project during that period witnesses almost 70 percent hike in a bid to appease the political operators and thus creating scope for plundering money.

Referring to the findings of White Paper, the Press Secretary said that about $234 billon were laundered abroad from the country during the previous regime.

Had the amount remained inside the country, then it could have been reinvested, and thus more jobs could have been created, he added.

“We had inherited a TB-affected economy and our main task was to fix first the TB and then we will look after the health. After fixing the disease of the economy in the last six months, I will say it is regaining itself,” he said.

The first task of the interim government was to consider the macroeconomic stability, Shafiqul Alam noted.

“We’re seeing some very good results as inflation is declining for two months in a row and hopefully it will continue to fall from February onwards and by June it will reach around 7 percent and it means restoring respite and comfort of the people,” he said.

He said the government is witnessing that the prices of commodities are declining. “If inflation remains intact, then the exchange rate also remains stable and thus put a positive impact in all areas including in the development budget.”

He alleged that the previous AL government had destroyed fully the macroeconomic stability of the country and one of the major tools to that end was the same deposit and lending rate at 9 percent.

Regarding the looting in the banking sector during the previous AL regime, he said “robbery at broad day light took place while everybody was sleeping.”

He said a huge wastage of fund took place during the previous regime and now all would have to bear its impact. “We’ll have to make the debt servicing as a lion share of the budget will go into that direction.”

Noting that it was a challenge to bring the economy on the path of growth after braving those odd situations, he said the interim government has been able to do that through bringing reforms in the labour sector for bringing more investments from multinational companies, increasing the efficiency of the Chattogram Port since it is the most important thing to woo more investment.

He said the government is trying to restore discipline in the energy sector as there was state-sponsor dacoity in the previous regime. “We’re pursuing ‘no electricity, no payment,’ we’re vying for more solar power, Bangladesh-India-Bhutan-Nepal SA Electricity Grid to tap the potentials of hydropower.”

The press secretary said the government is also going for speedy exploration of gas, addressing corruption through digitalization depending less on paper work and attracting more FDI.

Citing unemployment as a current crisis in Bangladesh, he said there is no alternative for attraction of FDI to address the job crisis.

Alleging that the AL government in their last two years led no foreign company to repatriate their profits, he said that the current government has addressed the issue.

“Such initiatives send right signal to foreign investors that the government lives up to its commitments, it is efficient and it tackles corruption,” he added.

“If we can digitalize all the works, can make efficient the Chattogram Port and ensure energy efficiency, and make certain sweeping reforms in labour sector, then the interim government is very much confident that more FDI will come,” the press secretary confidently said.

He said the interim government had sent a right signal across the globe. “We’re now ready for business and more people are now showing interest while Bangladesh will be a top performer in the global economy in the coming days.”

About the law and order situation, the Press Secretary said that the government has already taken nine measures to improve the law and order situation.

“We’re trying to improve the situation as early as possible…we hope that there will be speedy improvement in this area and we’re quite confident,” he added.

Replying to another question, he said that the central bank Governor had issued strong message time and again for restoring discipline in the banking sector side by side assuring that the depositors in the troubled banks would not be affected.

Answering to another question, he said that the interim government has been working on ensuring ‘data sanctity’.

He told another questioner that the interim government has been taking agriculture friendly measures considering the issue of self sufficiency in food.