Dhaka to seek investment for next 5-year plan

Bangladesh will seek investment from development partners in different sectors including education, health, energy, human resources and infrastructure development under the upcoming eighth five-year plan.

The investment proposal will be placed at the Bangladesh Development Forum (BDF) beginning on January 29 in Dhaka.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the two-day event that will focus on the five-year plan covering 2021-2025.

Hartwig Schafer, the World Bank vice-president for South Asia; Junichi Yamada, senior vice-president of the Japan International Cooperation Agency, and Shixin Chen, vice-president of the Asian Development Bank will attend the forum.  

The Economic Relations Division (ERD) under the finance ministry will host the programme, which will have nine sessions.  

He said, "They will discuss issues of effective partnership for implementing the eighth five-year plan aiming towards achieving the sustainable development goals."

ERD officials said the business sessions will discuss issues such as policy support for private sector engagement and trade facilitation, innovative financing for a self-reliant Bangladesh and partnership for climate change and its financing.

They also said that through the forum, the government will also try to find alternative sources of financing that go beyond the traditional development partners.

Critically, the forum will shed light on Bangladesh's strategic choices to reach three milestones – smooth and sustainable Least Developed Country (LDC) graduation by 2024, SDGs by 2030 and become a developed country by 2041, the ERD said in a press release.

The forum will provide an ideal platform for assessing the progress made in implementing the seventh five-year plan.

At the same time, it will also provide an opportunity for a wide-ranging multi-stakeholder consultation for formulating the upcoming eighth five-year plan.

ERD officials said the programme would also provide a stage for evaluating the country's progress in implementing the sustainable development goals.

It would further provide scope for assessing future financing needs, requirements or issues the country may come across in executing these global goals while identifying the ways for addressing those needs or requirements.

"BDF 2020 would also provide a platform for assessing the progress as well as the future development paths of the country's key priority areas like health, education, rural development, climate change, trade facilitation, private sector engagement etc.'' the release added.

The previous edition was held in January 2018. BDF 2018 brought together about 700 delegates representing the Bangladesh government and various development partners, including the UN, World Bank, Asian Development Bank and others.