Bangladeshi journalists urge government to reject 'Poverty Reduction' plans which is prepared under influence of the IMF.

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On 3rd November 2008, in a press conference held in Dhaka Reporters Unity, Equity and Justice Working Group Bangladesh (EquityBd) urged political leaders to reject country’s 2^nd PRSP (Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper) as this strategy paper has been prepared with the instruction of IMF. They urged country’s political leaders to regain country’s sovereignty in economic decision, and this should be declared in their forthcoming election manifesto; each of the political parties should describe their plan for poverty reduction, employment creation etc. The press conference was moderated by Rezaul Karim Chowhdury, convener of the group, while Sayed Aminul Haque made the presentation. Besides, Md. Shamsuddoha, Mostafa Kamal Akanda of EquityBd also participated in the press conference.

Speakers said that the 2^nd PRSP, which has just approved in the advisor’s council, proposed the country to adopt whole sale privatization and liberalization, which are the major conditionality of IMF and WB. It also has been outlined in the PRSP document that government loan borrowing could be up to 60 % of GDP, and debt stock could be 40 % of GDP. Such policy guideline will make the country more indebted to the foreign loan. Speakers mentioned that country is already paying annually 17 % of revenue budget as debt servicing which has surpassed the important sectoral allocation like health and education. Therefore the proposed volume of loan borrowing would increase country’s debt servicing up to 25 to 30 % of the revenue budget, which inevitably force the government to reduce budget allocation especially in the public service sectors.

Sayed Aminul, in his position paper, mentioned that 2nd PRSP adopted the policies of commercialization of agriculture, irrigation, involvement of private sector in agricultural input business, and introduction of tax system in agriculture; which will be detrimental to the effort of gaining country’s self sufficiency in food production. Following the recent economic crisis, while the whole world is trying to regulate market the PRSP in Bangladesh outlined the policies of more import tariff reduction, reduction of sensitive list etc, which in fact will foreclose the growth of domestic industries and will reduce employment scope. Speakers also criticized denationalization plan of Padma and Zamuna Oil Company and 26 SOE (state owned enterprise) as planned in the second PRSP.

Please find and download the major media coverage;  

http://www.thefinan cialexpress- bd.info/search_ index.php? page=detail_ news&news_id=49852

http://www.theindep endent-bd. com/details. php?nid=103274

http://www.prothom- alo.com/mcat. news.details. .php?nid= MTI1NTcz&mid=MTM=

http://www.amardesh bd.com/dailynews /sub_section. php?issueID= 962&sub_section_ id=7&NewsID=198645&NewsType=bistarito

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