Interim govt to take economy forward braving hurdles: Salehuddin

Adviser to the Ministries of Finance and Planning Dr Salehuddin Ahmed today said that they have taken the charge of the interim government to march the economy forward braving all the barriers.

“You can be best assured that we’ve taken charge to take the economy forward as soon as possible. There may be some transitory problems, but those are not significant and hopefully we’ll solve those,” he said.

The Adviser was responding to a barrage of questions after holding a meeting with the officials of the Ministry of Planning, the Planning Commission and the Statistics and Informatics Division held at the NEC Conference Room in the city’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagar area today.

When asked about the current state of the economy, he said the first thing is that the economy is not bad at all. “It has been slowed down and it can be slowed down for any economy or country due to natural disaster and for something else. We’ve been passing through an extraordinary situation and for which it has slowed down. But, it has peaked up already and some essential decisions have already been taken,” he added.

He said there is no problem. “I’ve already given directives …I have already talked with the business people and MDs of commercial banks. In Bangladesh Bank, there is no vacuum. I have told them that the central bank is not only run by Governor, but it is also run by certain rules, regulations and norms. Please follow the rules as instructed.”

He said the banking operations like RTGS and LC payment do not need the Governor’s decision. “The economy has been peaking up and the chamber people have also been assured,” he added.

Dr Salehuddin also asked the officials concerned to complete the ongoing development projects quickly considering their outcome for the country, its people and economy.

“We’ve talked about the Annual Development Programme (ADP) and its implementation. We asked the authorities concerned to complete the ongoing projects considering the outcome of those for the people and economy of the country,” he said.

Regarding the allocation of fund for the ongoing mega projects, he said that he had instructed to place the matter to the appropriate authority. “We’ll see the matter then.”

The Adviser also put emphasis on stopping the wastage of money whatever it is administrative expense or anything else.

“We’ve to ensure proper utilization of fund either from domestic sources or loan or grant and this is the main thing,” he added.

Regarding inflation, he said that there is no denying of the fact that the general point to point inflation is rising. The government will work on market monitoring to tame inflation, he added.

Dr Salehuddin asked the officials to maintain transparency and accountability regarding any procurement.

“Although our ADP implementation is weak, we’ve asked them to quicken the implementation process,” he said.

He also advocated for not entrusting one project director for more than one projects.

“We’ve asked the officials to change their orientation, attitude and thus enhance their efficiency,” he said.

Dr Salehuddin also asked the officials to avoid lack of coordination in implementation of any project to avert wastage of fund and thus ensuring quicker implementation of any project.

Regarding the supply chain issue, the Adviser said that he would have meetings regarding this matter in the next few days with the concerned officials.

About the data, he asked the BBS officials to collect those properly and timely and thus publish those.

Talking about the reforms in financial sector, he said, adding, “We’ll do the required reforms immediately. We’ll think about the reforms in the banking sector.”

He said that he would sit with the experts to find out the ways to bring reforms in the financial sector.

Responding to a question, the Adviser said, “Insha Allah, we’ll have new governor in Bangladesh Bank shortly.” (BSS)