DHAKA, Aug 29, 2024 (BSS) - The probable report of the interim government's
White Paper Committee on the state of the country's economy would enlighten
the reforms pathway of the government and thus help to avert the deviations
of the economy occurred over the years, said noted economist Dr Debapriya
Bhattacharya.

"The White Paper Committee will give hints to the interim government on
various reforms...it will enlighten the government's reform programmes," said
renowned economist Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya at the Planning Commission after
holding the maiden meeting of the Committee today.

The government has already formed the committee for the preparation of a
comprehensive "White Paper on the State of Bangladesh Economy".

The committee is chaired by Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, Distinguished Fellow
at Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) and Convener of the Citizen's Platform
for SDGs, Bangladesh.

Dr Debapriya said that the operations of this committee would be a practice
of bringing transparency in the economy and through such practice, the
interim government would perceive that they have taken the charge of
inheriting what kind of economy.

He said they would also identify the challenges and barriers surrounding the
economy and thus may help framing the future steps of the government.

The eminent economist said the report would also provide a roadmap so that
the deviations and loopholes which were created over the years in the
country's economy did not reoccur.

He said at the very outset, the committee would evaluate constructive and
available data and information and thus would try to understand the base of
the economy adding that alternate data and information would also be
considered if the usual data is not available.

Clarifying clearly that the committee would not work for identifying
corruption, rather it would try to identify why corruption took place and
determining its intensity. "It's not our responsibility to say who are the
corrupts and why did they resort to it...concerned government body is there
for it,"

He said that they would evaluate the various policies, rules and regulations
of the previous government and thus try to figure out their relevance
considering the current and future context. "We don't want to see
reoccurrence of previous mistakes and incidents...what should be the ideal
safeguard,"

The noted economist said that the most important thing is that the
perpetrators get punished and there is no reoccurrence of such incidents. "No
matter we get back the money, but it's more important that the perpetrators
get punished and I think they are in jail now as part of it,"

He asserted that the current government is fully concerned over the matter
and there is no need to renew such concerns.

The chief of the committee informed that the report would give hints about
the base and structure of the 9th Five Year Plan, possible steps about
attaining the SDGs, and ensuring smooth and sustainable LDC graduation.

He said they would pursue three methods while conducting their operations
like evaluation through criticism, utilizing the think tanks, foreign firms,
and holding discussions with the concerned stakeholders like students,
businessmen.

When asked whether they would publish an interim report, Dr Debapriya said
instead of waiting for the stipulated 90 days for the committee, they would
try to publish draft interim reports on those accomplished segments of the
economy and thus take feedbacks from various stakeholders to make those firm.

He told another questioner that they would not make any ADP portfolio
analysis or make project wise analysis, rather they would make suggestions
for making improvement in ADP utilization, especially there would be
discussions on the mega projects.

Asked how far they would go back to consider the report, the eminent
economist said they would go back as far as necessary to understand the
reasons behind the current state of the economy.

"This (the committee) is for not a full-fledged evaluation of the operations
of the previous government, rather it will assist the interim government to
move forward and thus suggest it for not to commit the previous mistakes," he
added.

Responding to another question, he said that the committee would not conduct
a full-fledged evaluation of the operations of the banking and financial
sector, rather the proposed Banking Commission would look after such issues.

Turning to the issues of mega projects, he said that they would consider the
mega projects in the context of Bangladesh's current economic challenges.

About the matter of repealing the provision for whitening black money, the
Chief of the Committee, said that all have raised their concerns about the
low tax to GDP ratio of the country for which they would also discuss about
the internal resource mobilization issues.

He said that the issue of whitening black money could come for discussion as
all concerned have termed it as 'counter productive'.

About the alleged corruption of billions of dollars in the financial and
banking sector over the years as outlined by the interim government, Dr
Debapriya said they would speak for preserving the rights of the citizens and
depositors side by side advocate that no incapable person or institution is
given licenses in future.

About the issue of bringing back siphoning of money, he said that there were
discussions over the matter adding it is a complex issue.

Replying to another query, Dr Debapriya said the current public expenditure
is also a part of bad shape in the economy adding, "We're now analyzing the
status of the economy, not the trend for years after years...education and
health sectors didn't receive desired allocations as there were deviations."

Other members of the committee Professor AK Enamul Haque, Dean of Faculty of
Business and Economics, East West University, Ferdaus Ara Begum, Chief
Executive Officer, Business Initiative Leading Development (BUILD), Imran
Matin, Executive Director 0f BRAC Institute of Governance and Development
(BIGD), BRAC University, Dr Kazi Iqbal, Senior Research Fellow of Bangladesh
Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), Dr M Tamim, Professor of Bangladesh
University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) and former Special Assistant
to the Chief Advisor (2008), Dr Mohammad Abu Eusuf, Professor of Department
of Development Studies, University of Dhaka, Professor Mustafizur Rahman,
Distinguished Fellow, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Dr Selim Raihan,
Professor of Department of Economics, University of Dhaka, and Executive
Director, South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM), Dr Sharmind
Neelormi, Professor, Department of Economics, Jahangirnagar University, Dr
Zahid Hossain, former lead economist, World Bank and eminent columnist
attended the meeting while Dr Tasneem Arefa Siddiqui, former professor,
Department of Political Science, University of Dhaka, and founding chair,
Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) joined the meeting
through zoom.