Economists and experts on Sunday called for establishing good governance both in public and private sector for attaining sustainable economic growth in the years to come. At different sessions of a seminar ‘Vision 2030: a framework for economic policy making and strategy formulation in a pluralistic democracy’, they underscored reaching a consensus immediately among the political parties for attaining the country’s good governance.
They said the government should end extra judicial killing for the greater interest of the country’s good governance.
The Bangladesh Economists’ Forum organised the two-day conference in a city hotel.
At the breakout session for public policy and institutions, former caretaker government adviser Akbar Ali Khan said that the country had attained economic growth over the last four decades while the governance had worsened.
But, history proves that such type of growth will not sustain in an absence of good governance, he said.
According to the Russian history, once upon a time the country secured higher economic growth, but it failed to keep the rate due to an absence of good governance, he said.
The political parties should reach a consensus among themselves to establish good governance, Akbar said.
Former commerce minister and BNP chairperson’s adviser Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury said that public institutions usually played a pivotal role in maintaining good governance.
He said that all regulatory bodies including Bangladesh Securities Exchange Commission were now controlled by the government that impeded good governance, he said.
Prime minister’s foreign affairs adviser Gowher Rizvi said that the public institutions should be redesigned, but it was not possible overnight.
He said the government would try to reform the public institutions as early as possible.
Former Bangladesh Economic Association president Mohiuddin Alamgir said that the government should end extra judicial killing in the shortest possible time to ensure good governance.
He said an increased trend in corruption also hindered the growth as irregularities would make delay in implementing public projects.
At the concluding session, former caretaker government finance adviser Mirza Azizul Islam said economic growth was not only pivotal objective of the development.
The government should emphasise on the growth of the country’s private sector, he said.
Azizul said the government should take measures to remove energy crisis to make the private sector vibrant.
University of California professor Azizur Rahman Khan said that the country’s GDP-agricultural production ratio was only 12 per cent which was not satisfactory.
The farm lands will decrease more in the coming days due to increasing trend in population, he said.
The government should provide proper support including capital to the agriculture sector, he said.
Former Bangladesh Bank governor Mohammad Farashuddin said that traffic jam, shortage of lands and abduction were the major problems for the country’s urban areas.
The government should mitigate the crisis to ensure development, he said.
-With New Age input
