Online Desk: The National Economic Council (NEC) today approved a Taka 2,45,000 crore Revised Annual Development Programme (RADP) for the current fiscal year (FY24) prioritizing on sectors like road transport, communication, energy and power.

The approved RADP is Taka 18,000 crore or 6.84 percent lower than the original ADP size of Taka 2,63,000 crore for the current fiscal.

The approval came from a meeting of the NEC held today with its chairperson and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair at the NEC Conference Room in the city’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagar area.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, Planning Division Senior Secretary Satyajit Karmakar said that out of the total revised RADP outlay of Taka 2,45,000 crore, Taka 1,61,500 crore will come from the local sources while Taka 83,500 crore from the foreign sources.

Planning Minister Major General (retd) Abdus Salam and State Minister for Planning Md Shahiduzzaman Sarker spoke at the briefing.

Satyajit said the total number of projects in the RADP for the current fiscal year has been fixed at 1588, including 1345 investment projects, 36 feasibility study, 115 technical assistance projects, and 92 self financed projects.

The Planning Minister said that a good number of specific proposals were placed in the meeting in line with the earlier directives from the Prime Minister on project formulation, approval and implementation.

He said during the meeting which lasted nearly three hours, the Premier asked the authorities concerned to arrange necessary allocations for those projects which are nearing completion and could be completed with minimum fund and also those could bear much returns.

Salam said the Prime Minister also stressed on conducting feasibility to avert the usual tendency of delay in project formulation and implementation stages.

In this regard, he said the Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) has been asked to take special initiative on monitoring so that the development projects are completed in a timely manner side by side there is no time over run and cost over run.

The Planning Minister said emphasis was also given in the meeting on prioritizing allocations and investments in the sectors like agriculture, health, education, power and energy, science and technology, social protection, climate change in line with the 8th Five Year Plan.

Answering to a question, Salam said some of the Ministries and Divisions often see lesser allocations in the RADP due to some reasons like lack of capacity as well as some other limitations.

He said the Education and Health ministries have been suggested raising their capacity to implement the RADP.

When asked about the slow ADP utilization pace in the current fiscal year, the Planning Minister said the current fiscal year which started from July, 2023 have experienced many difficulties as well as political and economic uncertainties which was harmful for the pace of development.

Brushing aside all the speculations over holding of the last general election, he said a free and fair general election was held in the country and subsequently all the economic indicators are increasing in Bangladesh like the inward remittance.

“Stability is the pre-condition of development and it is now prevailing,” he said, adding that the implementation of projects is now going on smoothly.

The Planning Minister also informed that work on framing the 9th Five Year Plan has already started and it would be drafted in line with the Delta Plan 2100 and the Perspective Plan.

Answering to another question about the usual trend of downsize revision of the ADP, Salam said that revision of the ADP is a continuous process and it would continue.

State Minister for Planning Md Shahiduzzaman Sarker said that the RADP for the current fiscal year has been finalized considering the current and practical situation with some minor changes.

He said that the Prime Minister in the meeting put much emphasis on capacity building of the executing agencies.

Planning Division Senior Secretary Satyajit Karmakar said that Prime Minister has already asked the Cabinet Secretary to submit a roadmap on how to enhance capacity of the project directors and also to utilize their maximum potentials through creating a pool.

In this regard, Satyajit said once the roadmap and guideline is available, then some specific proposals would be submitted before the Prime Minister to comprehensively deal with the trend of slow pace in implementation as well as lack of capacity.

He informed that the Prime Minister asked the concerned ministries and divisions to complete some 330 projects, which are nearing completion, to complete those in the current fiscal year.

The Planning Secretary said the secretaries of the Ministries and divisions concerned of those 330 projects have pledged that those projects would be completed within the timeframe as their local and foreign funding have ready been assured.

Responding to a question, Satyajit said although there are some dissimilarities in resource allocation in line with the 8th Five Year Plan, but the Prime Minister has given directive to take more quality projects in the health, agriculture, education, environment sectors as well as for the development of the womenfolk.

According to the RADP for FY24, the transport and communication sector got the highest allocation of Taka 63,263.31 (25.82%) followed by power and energy sector Taka 37,896.73 crore (15.47%), housing and community facilities Taka 28,002.15 crore (11.43%), Local Government and Rural Development Taka 19,969.71 crore (8.15%), education Taka 17,229.91 crore (7.03%), environment, climate change and water resources Taka 14,391 crore (5.87%), health Taka 12,066.76 crore (4.93%), agriculture Taka 10,317.76 crore (4.21%), industry and Economic services Taka 4,630.43 crore (1.89%) and science and ICT Taka 3,637.12 crore (1.48%).

Out of the highest allocation recipient Ministries and Divisions, Local Government Division topped the list with Taka 42,700.76 crore (17.43%) followed by Road Transport and Highways Division Taka 27,803.45 crore (11.35%), Power Division Taka 27,127.45 crore (11.07%), Ministry of Railways Taka 13,117.62 crore (5.35%), Ministry of Water Resources Taka 12,192.75 crore (4.98%), Ministry of Science and Technology Taka 11,415.51 crore (4.66%), Health Services Division Taka 9,345.49 crore (3.81%).