Issues of Preparation and Implementation of ADP
As per the poverty reduction strategy of the government of Bangladesh, the main issues of preparation and implementation of ADP (Annual Development Program) are accelerating economic growth, lowering inflation, generating employment, and reduction of poverty. Do you agree with this statement? Justify your opinion.
Yes, I agree with this statement, because Bangladesh is a developing country where most of the people living below the poverty line. The government is planning to establish Bangladesh as a middle-income country but the problem is poverty which must be resolved first to get the status of middle income. Another problem is imbalance income, here in Bangladesh 90% of the money is on the hand of 10% of people, and the rest of the 10% money holding by 90% of people, this ratio should be adjusted through the economic distribution of income and wealth to ensure balance.
To ensure accelerating economic growth, creating employment, and reduction of poverty line government took many strategic decisions like the Annual Development Program. Every year a huge amount of money is allocating for the purpose of the annual development program and if requires then the government revises the ADP year to year.
ADP is under the development budget approved by the parliament; basically, the planning commission formulates the ADP of the Government of Bangladesh for a period of more or less than five years to meet several goals and objectives. For financing of ADP, both local sources (government or other financial institutions) and foreign (foreign aid, loan) are used.
Over the year allocation from the budget for ADP is increasing by a considerable amount, in 1972-73 ADP was 501 crore taka, 1979-80 it was 2123 crore taka, 1987-88 it was 5046 crore taka, 1995-1996 it was 12100 crore taka and for 2015-16 it is now 97000 crore taka.
Look at these above figures of ADP allocation over the year; you see a huge amount of money is used for the purpose of annual development and for this reason our economy is now expanding, more local and foreign investment creating employment for the people of Bangladesh which are working as a driving force for the increase of income, consequently, it is reducing the poverty of our country.
Another great challenge for the government of Bangladesh is to keep the inflation rate at a minimum level. Although we have seen that the inflation level was increased up to 9.09 percent in May 2014 and 5.86 percent is the lowest ever in December 2014. The rate of inflation in our country is normally at an average of 6 to 7 percent. So in this perspective, we can say that the government of Bangladesh is quite successfully managing our inflation level which is one of the prerequisites to ensure proper economic growth.
Now come to the point how economic growth is done through ADP over the years, economic growth is the increase in the value of all goods and services produced in a country for a period of time. GDP- Gross Domestic Product is the determinant by which we can say what going on with the economy; it is growing positively or negatively. Here for Bangladesh, you can see that although there was an economic recession in many countries we had maintained our positive economic growth which is one of the main indicators that we are doing well.
Under the annual development program, several sectors are getting priorities like infrastructural development, ensuring quality education for the people, adequate health service, developing information technology to ensure digital Bangladesh, agricultural development and supporting women to become an entrepreneur. Economic growth can be possible through properly using natural resources, capital, human resource, and information technology. In addition to these, there should also capacity to meet demand and efficiency in the operation of the business.
Through these annual development programs our economy is moving positively, more new local and international companies are showing their interest to invest here and it is government responsibilities to ensure a positive environment for investment. More investment will create more employment opportunities, as people are getting employed our employment rate will be high. Because of employment, we will have more earnings to spend, hope this will help us to reduce our poverty.
The important thing is to keep the inflation rate at a lower level, although it is a very much challenging job for the government to lower the inflation rate it has to. The government should implement monetary policy to control the money supply and fiscal policy to minimize or maximize government expenditures and revenues. Also, it is required to monitor and control the exchange rate of our country as our country’s economy is highly dependent on the remittance and the import and export.
Example: As a vision of digital Bangladesh government spending lots of money from the ADB for Information Technological development. Now we are seeing that there is a positive impact of this IT development. Many people are getting employed, they are earning through outsourcing and working here in Bangladesh for the local firm. It is helping to generate the employment and earnings of the people which moving our economy positively.
If everything happens in the right way then we hope that the annual development program of the government will create a positive impact to ensure Bangladesh as a middle-income country.