'White paper' panel to look into foreign loan deals: Debapriya
"We have identified those matters accordingly. Allocation of work has also been distributed among the members of the committee," he says
The committee on the preparation for "White Paper on the State of Bangladesh Economy" will look into the loan agreements signed over the years, especially those signed in the energy sector, its head Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya said today (3 September).
"If the agreements on foreign loans that were signed over the years are available, then we will evaluate and definitely look into those. We have especially thought of looking into the agreements on the energy sector," Debapriya told reporters after the second meeting of the committee at the Planning Commission this afternoon.
Dr Bhattacharya, also a distinguished fellow at Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) and convener of the Citizen's Platform for SDGs, said they decided to look into specific issues which will get priority.
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"We have identified those matters accordingly. Allocation of work has also been distributed among the members of the committee. At the same time we have also decided the method of preparing this report," he said.
They also mentioned that the committee will look after the available data for formulating the report.
"We will also scrutinize the credibility of those available data as well as compare those with international standards," he added.
The chair of the committee said the available research in these fields will also be considered while preparing their report. "We will also evaluate those and thus try to move forward."
The eminent economist also mentioned that they will discuss the matters with various stakeholders and experts in sociology, economy and political science at home and abroad to take their opinions.
"We have taken the decision to move forward with our work within the next two months," he said.
Dr Debapriya also mentioned that the topics of discussions will feature general economy, macro economy as well as sectoral issues like heath, education and energy.
"Banking, resource mobilisation, revenue collection, smuggled money, mega projects, poverty alleviation and disparity will also be there in the focus," he said.
Dr Debapriya stated that they have planned the preliminary works and within the next three days, they will get the initial outlines of their works.
"The main thing is that the committee has already started its work," he added.
The government has formed the committee for the preparation of a comprehensive "White Paper on the State of Bangladesh Economy" with Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya in the chair.
