Minister explains ‘unbelievable speed’

Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has explained why he said Bangladesh’s economy was progressing 'at an unbelievable speed'.

He told reporters on Thursday, “The World Bank and ADB did not believe until now that our economy is progressing. Now they do.”

Kamal also announced the attainment of a 6 percent GDP growth last year amid political unrest.

“The quality of our development is better. That’s why I said that we are moving forward. Bangladesh’s economy is making progress at an unbelievable speed.”

At an ECNEC meeting on Aug 26, the minister presented his cabinet colleagues with a flourish of data and graphs illustrating the "unbelievable speed".

Lotus Kamal, as he is widely called, presented the statistics for GDP growth, per capita income, export earnings, revenue collection, remittances, 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, increase in life expectancy and literacy rate, and the decline of the unemployment rate also came up in his presentations.

It was the first time a planning minister made such a presentation at an ECNEC meeting.

Backing his remarks, Kamal on Thursday said, “The poverty rate in Bangladesh is currently at 24.5 percent. It was at 40 percent in 2005. It came down to 31.5 percent in 2010.”

“The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) publishes such data after every five years. The 24.5 percent poverty rate I’m talking about is according to the initial calculations of the BBS.”

“The rate will decrease in the final calculation when it is published in 2015,” he said.