Shamsul Alam is tapped to become state minister for planning

Dr Shamsul Alam, an acclaimed economist and a former member of the Planning Commission, is poised to join the cabinet as the state minister for planning.

Preparations are being made for his oath-taking ceremony at Bangabhaban on Sunday.

"The cabinet secretary has called me and asked to prepare to be sworn in as the state minister for planning at 7 pm on Sunday," Alam told bdnews24.com.

He could not confirm if anyone else will be inducted into the cabinet alongside him.

The Cabinet Division is yet to make a formal announcement but a senior official at Bangabhaban confirmed that a swearing-in ceremony will be held on Sunday.

Currently, the cabinet has 25 ministers and 19 state ministers. Also, three deputy ministers have taken charge of different government offices.

Jamalpur-2 MP Md Faridul Haque Khan Dulal was the last person to be appointed as a state minister. He was assigned to the Ministry of Religious Affairs after taking his oath on Nov 24 last year.

Alam, whose term as a senior secretary of the General Economics Division under the Planning Commission ended in June, will join the cabinet as a technocrat.

With thirty-five years of academic and research experience, Alam joined  Bangladesh Planning Commission as a member in 2009. He has since become the longest-serving member of Bangladesh Planning Commission in its history, ending his tenure on Jun 30.

Born in Chandpur's Matlab Upazila in 1951, Alam received his MSc in agricultural economics from Bangladesh Agricultural University in 1973. He earned an MA in economics from Thammasat University, Bangkok, in 1983 before completing his PhD in economics from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK in 1991.

Alam had a lengthy spell from 1974 to 2015 as a faculty at Bangladesh Agricultural University.

He led the preparation of several national planning documents as a member of the Planning Commission's General Economics Division, from 2009-19 period.

Alam worked at the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations from March 2002 to December 2005, having also served as a full-time national consultant at UNDP, Bangladesh.

He wrote numerous analytical columns on socio-economy and politics on the sub-editorial pages of national dailies for more than three decades.

The government honoured him with Ekushey Padak in 2020, for his contribution in agricultural economy.