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Interim government's economic policy body, in a major development push, decides to build the long-stalled Matarbari deep-sea port and prefers Japan as the builder rather than China or India for quality works and for some geopolitical issues.
Planning Adviser Professor Wahiduddin Mahmud disclosed the decision made Monday by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC).
"The Japan-funded projects are completed in time. Japan and the western countries have a system on their contractor management. If any contractors of those respective countries do any irregularities they take action. So, we feel that Japan is secured (for Matarbari port construction) from that view," he said.
"In Japan-funded projects in Bangladesh, even our local contractors have not indulged in any corruption. I am yet to notice such cases here," Prof Mahmud told journalists after the ECNEC meeting that also dealt with some other public-works schemes.
"We have decided to build the deep-sea port as there was a row between China and India over the construction of the Matarbari port. This is very important from the geopolitical front. Japan is very important country. Japan provides concessional loan," he added in praise of Japan while briefing the journalists.
To underpin the government choice in builder selection Prof Mahmud mentions that a jetty for handling coal has already been set up in Matarbari with Japanese funds.
"We have assessed that Matarbari port development is a megaproject. This project has a geopolitical essence and who is building is also big issue."
The economist-turned interim -government functionary makes a point that Chittagong and Pyra seaports will not have capacity in the near future and so "we need to build the deep-sea port".
Presided over by interim government Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus, the meeting of government's highest economic-policymaking body endorsed the deep-sea port-development project with a revised cost of Tk 243.81 billion.
The ECNEC also approved two other fresh projects and revised another one at the meeting.
Earlier in January 2020, the then government undertook the Matarbari deep-sea port- development project at a cost of Tk 177.77 billion for completing it by December 2026.
But the Chittagong Port Authority has failed to implement the works, and in the meantime, there have been many changes made to the design of the project with resultant cost and time overruns.
The ECNEC Monday approved revision of the project by enhancing the cost by Tk 65.74 billion to Tk 243.81 billion and extending the implementation time up to December 2029.
The policy body also revised the cost of the ongoing "SASEC-II: Widening of Elenga-Hatikamrul-Rangpur highways project" extending the cost by Tk 3.77 billion and the time by two more years up to December 2026.
Meanwhile, the interim administration approved two fresh projects involving a combined cost of Tk 174.62 billion, including the Kalurghat railway-cum-road bridge construction.
After the ECNEC meeting, Planning Adviser Dr Mahmud told journalists that they want to ensure quality in the development projects instead of the number of projects.
He also spoke about past political interference on Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) in calculating Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and inflation.
Actually, the capacity of national statistical agencies in the 3rd-world countries is poor and the BBS in Bangladesh is no exception.
It cannot collect quality data as well as faces influence from the political governments, which impacts on producing quality statistics, he added.
"I have assured the BBS that I will never interfere on them. It is required to frame a new statistical policy to produce quality data by the BBS," Dr Mahmud told the press.
About the decision at the ECNEC meeting, Prof Mahmud said they would trace all the public cars and vehicles, including the project automobiles, even at the upazila level and ensure best uses of those.
"We have been informed that during or after completion of the projects, cars do not have been traced. The government does not have any data in this regard. So we have decided to trace those public cars and vehicles. We want to ensure their best uses," he said.
About the "politically motivated" projects of the Sheikh Hasina administration, the Planning Adviser said if those projects do not have any quality outcome, this government would not allow those anymore for implementation.
"We are working to find out the politically motivated projects. We are categorising those into three. One in the initial stage, second one is on the halfway and 3rd category is on the last stage of execution. Then we will take decision on their fate," he said.
"We want to cut the development budget to some extent, but keeping the employment generation and economic activities in mind. We will be cautious on the economic impact for the public investment," Prof Mahmud said.
About the economy, the Planning Adviser said fall in private and public investments are natural after such big political changeover.
Owing to many bank owners and industrialists going "traceless" and a dip in government expenditure on projects taken to the past government's political objectives, the state of investment in the country is not good, he said.
About the education sector, Prof Mahmud said many university teachers are busy taking over charge as Vice-chancellors which is "unfortunate".
If they go for becoming VC, then who will teach the students! Prof Mahmud wonders over such rat race.