Market Update: New Age | Job creation biggest challenge, inflation top worry: finance adviser – Full Analysis

Finance adviser Salehuddin Ahmed on Tuesday said that employment generation was the biggest challenge of the economy while inflation was the biggest obstacle.

Employment will not be generated without acceleration in activities of trade and industries, said the finance adviser after a meeting of the advisory council committee on government purchase and economic affairs at the secretariat in the capital Dhaka.

The purchasing power of the people will not increase without employment, he said, adding that containing inflation should be multidimensional and not limited only to the monetary policy.

This was the last meeting of the advisory council committee before the national parliamentary elections to be held tomorrow.

The finance adviser said that the new elected government should consolidate reforms initiated by the interim government after assuming power almost 18 months before after a mass uprising ousted the authoritarian regime of the Awami League.

Coordination among the government bodies should be increased, noted the finance adviser.

Calling upon the media to make fair criticism, he said that it was unfair to say nothing happened over the past 18 months.

The finance adviser hoped that positive outcomes of the reforms would come in the future.

Admitting that many reform initiatives could not be completed in the tenure of the interim government, Salehuddin said that running the economy for the interim period was not an easy task giving the structural weakness, limitation of the institutions and mismanagement for such a long period.

About the revenue reform, the finance adviser said that two new divisions had been created, but functioning of those still needed policy decisions.

Regarding the repatriation of money smuggled out by oligarchs of the previous regime, the finance adviser said that the interim government collected information which could be utilised by the new elected government to bring back the stolen fund to the country.]

He admitted that the repatriation of laundered money was always a lengthy process.

Answering to a question, the finance adviser said that compensating affected shareholders of the five merged Islamic banks was under consideration.

But, he said that the process was complex and required careful, step-by-step calculations.

Earlier, the advisory council committee on government purchase approved the procurement of 55,000 tonnes of fertiliser and the construction of fertiliser depots in Meherpur and Thakurgaon districts.

The approval will enable the Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation to import 25,000 tonnes of triple super phosphate from Tunisia with per tonne costing $530.

About 30,000 tonnes of urea from Karnaphuli Fertilizer Company Limited will be bought by Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation with a tonne costing $431.

The committee also approved two health ministry proposals.

One was procurement of 14.82 lakh GeneXpert cartridge at Tk 237.2 crore under direct purchase from the United Nations Office for Project Service and other was 5.38 crore pieces of anti-TB drug at Tk 77.56 crore, to be supplied by Reneta PLC.