Rejaul Karim Byron

Restructure of corporate tax, improvement in the ranking of the Ease of Doing Business Index, and special allocation for SMEs should get priority in the upcoming budget to draw investment and revive the job market, employers and economists say.

The government is set to undertake a huge Tk 5,883 crore digital connectivity project, in a move that could equip every corner of the country with the latest ICT infrastructure, making almost all government services digital and increasing the use of ICT at field levels.

The government has planned to build 30,000 homes for insolvent valiant freedom fighters and family members of the martyred and deceased war heroes in a bid to uplift their socioeconomic status.

As a part of its aggressive push to increase the country’s food stock, the government yesterday approved three proposals to import a total of 3.5 lakh tonnes of rice from India, Thailand and Vietnam under state-to-state arrangements.

To replenish the country’s fast-depleting food stock, the government has approved a proposal to lessen the time of bidding process by over a month for ensuring a faster import of rice.

The government has slashed the development budget for the current fiscal year by 3.26 per cent, keeping the local portion of the fund almost unchanged while trimming the foreign part.

Annual allocations for four of the seven ADP-funded first-track projects have either increased or remained the same, a sign that those are coping well with the pandemic fallout.

In the face of depleting food stock and sluggish public procurement of foodgrains, the government has started providing cash instead of rice or wheat to implement its Test Relief and Food for Work programmes.

The allocation to the revised annual development programme may trim by only Tk 7 lakh although the government had decided to put low-priority projects on hold in the beginning of the fiscal year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The government is going to prepare a roadmap soon for Bangladesh’s smooth transition from a least developed country to a developing one in the next five years.

The government has set an ambitious target of earning $150 billion through remittance between July 2020 and June 2025, according to a document on the 8th Five-Year Plan.

Bangladesh has stepped into a new journey as it qualified to graduate into a developing nation from a Least Developed Country (LDC) after 45 years.

The United Nations Committee for Development Policy has recommended Bangladesh’s graduation from Least Developed Country (LDC) status along with Nepal and Lao PDR.

Bangladesh is confident that it can fend off the challenges stemming from the graduation from the grouping of least-developed countries (LDCs) as the government has taken measures.

At a time when raising voice against financial scammers is challenging given the immense influence enjoyed by the vested quarter, Khondkar Ibrahim Khaled took a bold stance against swindlers in the banking sector. He became a torchbearer by way of giving his valuable recommendations to protect financial institutions from delinquent borrowers.

The downing of bank deposit rates is pushing savers towards national savings certificates as they seek higher returns after incomes were wiped out by the coronavirus pandemic.

The government has decided to expand the size of a fresh stimulus package for small traders, entrepreneurs and farmers to Tk 10,000 crore as they were largely left out of credit support despite being hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.

The government yesterday approved two proposals to buy a total of 67.2 lakh MMBTU liquified natural gas from spot market for Tk 623.64 crore to meet the growing demand for the super-chilled fuel.

The government is going to upgrade the 209km Dhaka-Sylhet highway into six lanes, including service lanes on both the sides, under a Tk 16,918.59 crore project.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday directed Payra Port Authority (PPA) to prepare a detailed work plan amidst cost spirals and delays in project implementation involving the government’s highly-ambitious development agenda.