Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Monday raised question about the sources of funds of private sector think–tank Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).
"We need to know where their funds come from," Kamal told reporters in response to a question over the CPD's assessment on the country's state of economy made public on Sunday.
In its latest quarterly review, the CPD termed the country’s economy weakest in ten years.
"The economic growth is like a kite without string and it will not sustain," Debapriya Bhattachariya, a member of CPD’s board of trustee and Distinguished Fellow, remarked.
BSS adds: While drawn his attention to the CPD's review, Kamal said: “Our position is not the same as theirs. Our position is for the country’s people and their welfare. I’ll praise the country’s people as you better know whether there is growth, development and employment generation in the country or not.”
The finance minister said since there was stable macroeconomic situation and continued growth in the country, the poverty rate now came down at around 20% which was 56.7% in 2001. “Except this, we don’t have any other magic in our hands,” he said.
He said had the CPD reviewed the performance of Bangladesh on global perspective, it would have been better for the country.
Kamal said a trade war was now going on across the world while some sort of unrest was going on in Europe centring Brexit. “Under the circumstances, our export trade may face some risk and pressure. But despite intense global recession, the progress of Bangladesh would not be stopped. We’ll surely be able to tackle the situation under the leadership of our Prime Minister," he summed up.
Japan to continue financial assistance to dev projects
He said the government was interested to work more with Japan on more mega projects since they extended credit on soft terms.
“Currently we’ve many ongoing projects with Japan as these are investment projects and benefits are surely expected from these projects. We’re interested to work with Japan on more mega projects as they give us credit on soft terms,” he said.
The finance minister said this to reporters after Japanese Ambassador to Bangladesh Naoki Ito met him at his ERD office this afternoon, said a ministry press release.
He informed that a Japanese delegation would arrive here on November 16 and hold meeting on the bilateral aspects and mutual cooperation.
Mentioning that Japan is a trusted and time-tested friend of Bangladesh, Kamal said the relationship between Bangladesh and Japan deepened through the hands of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
PLFS's depositors money to be refunded
Referring to his meeting earlier in the day with a delegation of Peoples’ Leasing and Financial Services (PLFS), he said that the depositors demanded of the government to stop the process for closing down the company as well as to return the deposits of the small and individual investors.
In this regard, Kamal said he had assured the delegation of considering their demands.
