Minister optimistic about 100pc ADP implementation in FY19

Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal is hopeful of achieving 100 per cent implementation rate of the Annual Development Programme (ADP) in the current fiscal year.

The minister came up with the projection while addressing the ‘Meet the Press’ programme at the NEC Conference Room at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar area in Dhaka on Sunday.

Noting that all the major macroeconomic indicators are now positive, AHM Mustafa Kamal said that the inward remittance at the end of this year would reach $16 billion.

"The export earnings also witnessed near 19 per cent growth during this July-November period," he said.

He informed that the implementation rate of the ADP reached a record Taka 364.38 billion in terms of expenditure in July-November period of FY19 with an implementation rate of 20.15 per cent.

According to BSS, the rate 0.04 per cent or Taka 34.41 billion higher than the corresponding period of the previous fiscal. The expenditure was Taka 329.97 billion in FY18.

“If the current momentum continues, then we expect that the GDP growth rate in the current fiscal would reach 8.25 per cent to 8.30 per cent,” he added.

The planning minister said that the government is implementing various programmes to bring down the poverty rate at around 3 to 4 per cent by 2030 from the current level of 21 per cent.

He hoped that the country would be able to attain double digit or 10 per cent growth rate by the year 2021.

Asked about the current state of the banking sector, Kamal said there might be some weaknesses in the oversight of the sector, but he is not at all panicked at the current situation.

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) and the financial sector could be taken into a much higher strengthened position through bringing some reforms, he opined.