All prospects to be fulfilled if govt continues: Muhith

KMA Hasnat, from BALI (INDONESIA): Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith on Friday expressed his hope that all prospects including growth will be fulfilled if the incumbent Awami League (AL) government continues.

He, however, apprehended that the growth will come down and there will be no prosperity if Khaleda Zia's party takes power.

"In the coming year, growth will not be affected by election at all. But, it will depend who will form the government after election. If it is Khaleda Zia (BNP), then you can be rest assured that the growth will be coming down and down and you also would have no chance of gaining prosperity under her party," Muhith said.

He also said Khaleda Zia does not know what is prosperity adding, "If the present government continues, then all the projections including growth will be fulfilled.”

The Finance Minister said this while briefing reporters about the outcomes of his meeting with the Deputy Managing Director of International Monetary Fund (IMF) Mitsuhiro Furusawa at the Hotel Westin in Bali.

Mentioning that there was no discussion about the upcoming election in Bangladesh during the World Bank Group and IMF Annual Meetings in Bali, he said there is no such heat over the ensuing general election in Bangladesh. But, Fakhrul Islam Alamgir (BNP Secretary General) has been spreading such heat every now and then through delivering speeches and he has been doing that for the last 10 years.

About the meeting outcomes with the DMD of IMF, Muhith said the IMF official noted that the overall economy of Bangladesh has been performing quite well.

But, the Finance Minister noted that the IMF has pointed out some weaknesses in the banking sector mainly on Non Performing Loans (NPL), deficit in provisioning side by side rising trend of imports.

"I also agreed with them when their mission (IMF) visited Dhaka recently," Muhith said adding that he would give a plan on banking reforms in about a month time or likely in the next month where he would try to attend some of these concerns.

He went on saying, "In the next month, I'm bringing out a paper on banking reforms on what we should do for our banking sector.”

The Finance Minister also mentioned that one of the achievements during the current Awami League government was the creation of a capital market and that has taken up six to seven years. Now we can go for accomplishing other tasks.

About the allegation that high trend of imports is causing transfer of funds, Muhith said, "I don't agree with this diagnosis as because over the last one or two years, there was no such transfer of funds or siphoning of money ..............such activity takes place when there is uncertainty in the country. I don't think there is any uncertainty in Bangladesh right now.”

Asked about the performance of Bangladesh in Human Capital Index released by the World Bank, he noted that the human capital index of the country could be substantially increased if the government could improve education further in the country.

Muhith said there is still scope for improvement in the literacy rate of the country side by side making improvement in the tertiary and higher education of Bangladesh.

According to the Human Capital Index released by the World Bank on Thursday, Bangladesh performed better than the South Asian average as well as the Lower Middle-Income average in all criteria except for Stunting.

The Finance Minister also opined that Bangladesh can follow South Korea’s way they have gained development in different socio-economic fields over the years.


risingbd/Dhaka/October 12, 2018/Hasnat/A K Azad