The probable report of the interim government's White Paper Committee on the state of the country's economy would enlighten the reforms pathway of the government and thus help to avert the deviations of the economy occurred over the years, said noted economist Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya. "The White Paper Committee will give hints to the interim government on various reforms...it will enlighten the government's reform programmes," said renowned economist Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya at the Planning Commission after holding the maiden meeting of the Committee today. The government has already formed the committee for the preparation of a comprehensive "White Paper on the State of Bangladesh Economy". The committee is chaired by Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, Distinguished Fellow at Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) and Convener of the Citizen's Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh. Dr Debapriya said that the operations of this committee would be a practice of bringing transparency in the economy and through such practice, the interim government would perceive that they have taken the charge of inheriting what kind of economy. He said they would also identify the challenges and barriers surrounding the economy and thus may help framing the future steps of the government. The eminent economist said the report would also provide a roadmap so that the deviations and loopholes which were created over the years in the country's economy did not reoccur. He said at the very outset, the committee would evaluate constructive and available data and information and thus would try to understand the base of the economy adding that alternate data and information would also be considered if the usual data is not available. Clarifying clearly that the committee would not work for identifying corruption, rather it would try to identify why corruption took place and determining its intensity. "It's not our responsibility to say who are the corrupts and why did they resort to it...concerned government body is there for i t," He said that they would evaluate the various policies, rules and regulations of the previous government and thus try to figure out their relevance considering the current and future context. "We don't want to see reoccurrence of previous mistakes and incidents...what should be the ideal safeguard," The noted economist said that the most important thing is that the perpetrators get punished and there is no reoccurrence of such incidents. "No matter we get back the money, but it's more important that the perpetrators get punished and I think they are in jail now as part of it," He asserted that the current government is fully concerned over the matter and there is no need to renew such concerns. The chief of the committee informed that the report would give hints about the base and structure of the 9th Five Year Plan, possible steps about attaining the SDGs, and ensuring smooth and sustainable LDC graduation. He said they would pursue three methods while conducting their operations like eval uation through criticism, utilizing the think tanks, foreign firms, and holding discussions with the concerned stakeholders like students, businessmen. When asked whether they would publish an interim report, Dr Debapriya said instead of waiting for the stipulated 90 days for the committee, they would try to publish draft interim reports on those accomplished segments of the economy and thus take feedbacks from various stakeholders to make those firm. He told another questioner that they would not make any ADP portfolio analysis or make project wise analysis, rather they would make suggestions for making improvement in ADP utilization, especially there would be discussions on the mega projects. Asked how far they would go back to consider the report, the eminent economist said they would go back as far as necessary to understand the reasons behind the current state of the economy. "This (the committee) is for not a full-fledged evaluation of the operations of the previous government, rather it will assist the interim government to move forward and thus suggest it for not to commit the previous mistakes," he added. Responding to another question, he said that the committee would not conduct a full-fledged evaluation of the operations of the banking and financial sector, rather the proposed Banking Commission would look after such issues. Turning to the issues of mega projects, he said that they would consider the mega projects in the context of Bangladesh's current economic challenges. About the matter of repealing the provision for whitening black money, the Chief of the Committee, said that all have raised their concerns about the low tax to GDP ratio of the country for which they would also discuss about the internal resource mobilization issues. He said that the issue of whitening black money could come for discussion as all concerned have termed it as 'counter productive'. About the alleged corruption of billions of dollars in the financial and banking sector over the years as ou tlined by the interim government, Dr Debapriya said they would speak for preserving the rights of the citizens and depositors side by side advocate that no incapable person or institution is given licenses in future. About the issue of bringing back siphoning of money, he said that there were discussions over the matter adding it is a complex issue. Replying to another query, Dr Debapriya said the current public expenditure is also a part of bad shape in the economy adding, "We're now analyzing the status of the economy, not the trend for years after years...education and health sectors didn't receive desired allocations as there were deviations." Other members of the committee Professor AK Enamul Haque, Dean of Faculty of Business and Economics, East West University, Ferdaus Ara Begum, Chief Executive Officer, Business Initiative Leading Development (BUILD), Imran Matin, Executive Director 0f BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD), BRAC University, Dr Kazi Iqbal, Senior Research Fe llow of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), Dr M Tamim, Professor of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) and former Special Assistant to the Chief Advisor (2008), Dr Mohammad Abu Eusuf, Professor of Department of Development Studies, University of Dhaka, Professor Mustafizur Rahman, Distinguished Fellow, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Dr Selim Raihan, Professor of Department of Economics, University of Dhaka, and Executive Director, South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM), Dr Sharmind Neelormi, Professor, Department of Economics, Jahangirnagar University, Dr Zahid Hossain, former lead economist, World Bank and eminent columnist attended the meeting while Dr Tasneem Arefa Siddiqui, former professor, Department of Political Science, University of Dhaka, and founding chair, Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) joined the meeting through zoom. Source: Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha
