Lotus Kamal claims 'unbelievable speed of economic progress'

Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has presented his cabinet colleagues with a flourish of data and graphs illustrating the "unbelievable speed" of Bangladesh's economic progress.

This unscheduled presentation took place at the meeting of the ECNEC on Tuesday, where Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Finance Minister AMA Muhith played audience to this 20-minute smorgasbord of figures, graphs and charts.

Lotus Kamal, as he is widely called, went through the statistics for GDP growth, per capita income, export earnings, revenue collection, remittance, foreign exchange reserves, inflation reduction, budget size and ADP implementation rate.

The increase in power and food production, reduced number of people living below the poverty line, an increase in life expectancy and literacy rate and the decline of the unemployment rate also came up in his presentations.

A large banner hanging over the meeting also showed numerous graphs depicting these numbers.

A planning minister has never made such a presentation at an ECNEC meeting before.

A planning ministry official said the prime minister had appreciated the presentation, saying it presented a holistic view of the nation's development.

"She said it could have been presented in an easier way, and also noted that the base year was not the same for all the statistics," the official said.

"The prime minister laughingly said that this would be useful for the ministers when they attend talk shows," the official added.

Planning Minister Kamal told reporters he wanted to demonstrate that the nation was moving ahead.

According to his presentation, the average GDP growth rate from 1991 to 2009 was 4.5 percent, which increased to 6.2 percent in the following years.

Remittance inflow increased from $6 billion in 2006-07 to $14.2 billion in 2013-14.

Similarly, he showcased the increase in revenue income, export earnings and forex reserve.