The government expects that the huge foreign investment it has targeted for the next five-year plan will create jobs for an estimated 85 lakh (8.5 million) people across Bangladesh, facilitating higher economic growth rate.
Officials said that for the 8th Five-Year Plan, which will begin from 2020-21 fiscal year, the government is looking forward to Tk 77 lakh crore (77 trillion) investment, of which three-fourths will come from foreign countries. The government itself will invest the rest.
The government has targeted attracting the investment to its 100 special economic zones for setting up industries where 85 lakh jobs will be created, they said.
The officials said Bangladesh will graduate from least developed country (LDC) status to upper middle-income country during the period, when it will lose several special privileges in the international market, but some new doors will open before it.
The government expects the investment and huge new jobs will facilitate attainment of an average economic growth rate of 8.34 percent during 2020-2021 to 2023-24 fiscal years and 8.5 percent growth in 2024-25 FY.
To attain the investment target, the government is focusing on its revenue collection in the next five years, when it wants to increase the revenue to GDP ratio to 16 percent.
Based on the revenue projection, the government is distributing its development work, which, it expects, will help reduce poverty to 11.5 percent from current 20.5 percent and bring extreme poverty below five percent.
According to sources, the 8th Five-Year Plan will focus on rural development. The plan is being formulated keeping in mind the government’s election manifesto ‘My Village, My Town’, they said.
The General Economic Division (GED) of the Planning Commission is passing busy hours in formulating the five-year plan.
“In the first FY (2020-2021) of the five-year planning, the government wants to achieve 8.2 percent economic growth, 8.3 percent growth in following two years, 8.4 percent in 2023-2024 FY and 8.5 percent in 2024-25 FY,” a high official of GED said.
GED Senior Secretary Dr Shamsul Alam told the media they are formulating the 8th Five-Year Plan with a realistic view. “We’ve set the target of GDP growth, taking into account local and global economic conditions.”
He expressed his belief that financial growth would surpass the target if it is possible to gain confidence of the investors in Bangladesh’s investment environment.
