Dhaka: Adviser to the Prime Minister for Finance and Planning, Dr. Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir, has highlighted the importance of developing a robust digital public infrastructure in Bangladesh alongside expanding social protection and enhancing self-regulation in financial markets. He shared these insights during a pre-budget roundtable titled ‘Digital Accounting and Revenue Mobilization,’ organized by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh and The Financial Express at CA Bhaban in Dhaka.
According to United News of Bangladesh, Dr. Titumir underscored the government’s commitment to establishing a ‘humanitarian, democratic welfare state’ that focuses on the citizens’ needs. He mentioned the ongoing development of a national digital database system under the ‘One Citizen, One Class, One Digital World’ framework, aimed at improving public service delivery and accountability. The government has also been linking family and farmers’ cards with banking services to enable access to formal financial channels.
Dr. Titumir emphasized the need to bring informal sectors into the formal economy, acknowledging previous governments’ success in increasing women’s participation in education and the formal labor market. Addressing economic challenges, he highlighted the necessity for long-term structural reforms, including expanding manufacturing, promoting green growth, enhancing electric vehicle production, and modernizing the railway system.
He stressed the importance of industrialization and investment for economic growth, which would subsequently lead to increased revenue collection and improved spending on education and healthcare. Dr. Titumir reiterated the government’s focus on gradually increasing allocations for these sectors to enhance human capability and accessibility.
On financial governance, he advocated for stronger market-based regulation and professional accountability, particularly in auditing and credit assessment. He cautioned against excessive regulation, suggesting that self-regulatory bodies should ensure market transparency and discipline. The adviser also raised concerns about non-performing loans (NPLs), questioning the repeated certification of bad assets by professionals and institutions, and called for accountability within the system before introducing new mechanisms like asset management companies.
The roundtable, presided over by Shamsul Huq Zahid, editor of The Financial Express, featured a welcome address by ICAB President NKA Mobin. Other participants included Muhammad Abdul Majid, Dr. Fahmida Khatun, Taskeen Ahmed, and Kamran T. Rahman.