| May 10, 2004 |
Closing Statement
by
H.E.
Mr. M. Saifur Rahman
Hon'ble Minister for Finance and Palnning
Goverment of the People's Republic of
Bangladesh
Bangladesh Development Forum 2004
|
Distinguished Co-Chairman & Delegates,
Let me first thank you all, as we close this year’s BDF, for your active participation in the very constructive dialogue over the last two days on the state of the Bangladeshi economy and its future growth path over the medium term. BDF, every year provides a very good opportunity to critically evaluate in a very free and frank atmosphere the performance of the economy from an international perspective. We greatly value the importance of BDF. I wish the duration of the BDF could be longer. I believe our decision to hold the BDF in Dhaka rather than in a third country has added value to this forum. It has given you an opportunity to see things for yourself on the ground and enabled you to make a correct assessment of the environment within which Bangladesh is progressing and facing challenges to growth. I wish to sincerely thank all of you who have traveled all the way from your respective capitals to Dhaka to participate in this Forum.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Our government has always endeavored to develop a very close partnership with development partners not only for aid, but also for exchange of constructive views which contribute to overall economic & social development of the country. We will continue to stay on course in this regard for our mutual benefit. Our government appreciates the understanding shown by all of you, our close development partners, over the last three days on how to assist Bangladesh to achieve the MDGs. I thank you all for extending support to us within the framework of the I-PRSP designed by ourselves.
I also appreciate your support within the context of full PRSP over the medium term. Let me reassure you, ladies & gentlemen, we will develop our final PRSP by the end of this year on a broad based consultative and participatory basis and it will be fully owned by the people of Bangladesh. Our goal is to move, more & more towards self-reliance and we are committed to increasingly finance our PRSP expenditure with our domestic resources. Moving towards MDGs will require more than 7 % GDP growth per year, which requires substantial investment. I welcome your intention to help us meet the financing gap as far as possible within the frame work of
PRSP.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The recognition of the international community of the performance of the government in macro-economic developments, and in social sectors over the last two and a half years is commendable. Please allow me to record here our thanks to all of you who sincerely supported us in achieving these goals.
Ladies and
Gentlemen,
This BDF enabled all of us to take stock of the status of needed reforms not only in economic sectors, but also in non-economic sectors, like overall governance, Law and Order, Investment climate and GO-NGO partnership. I appreciate your views on all these areas and also your understanding of the problems and challenges to satisfactorily meet them. The Government is committed to address these issues through a multifaceted approach. We welcome your understanding of the fact that broad based reforms initiated by the government in various sectors like, Finance & Banking, Tax Administration, Expenditure Management, SOEs, Trade Liberalization, Police, Energy & Power, Civil Service etc. will substantially contribute to further improvement of overall governance, including improvement of law & order and reduction of corruption. I appreciate the support extended by you in all these areas of governance reforms. We are now in the process of accelerating reforms in some of the key areas which will hasten the process of addressing the problems of overall good governance. The government is doing its best to form consensus of all concerned on the need for implementation of all these reforms as expeditiously as possible.
Ladies and
Gentlemen,
The reforms implemented by the government over the last two and a half years are phenomenal. Your appreciation of our reform efforts as expressed in the forum will continue to remain as a source of encouragement for us. The results are visible in every sphere. I believe the end-game in politics is the welfare of the people. The Government will, I assure you, endeavor its best to reach that goal and to that end try to mobilize support from all quarters. As we close BDF 2004, I am convinced that your support and cooperation will further strengthen in the days to come to enable us to reach the MDGs.
Ladies
and Gentlemen,
Thank you once again for your participation in the forum. I wish a happy and safe journey back home to those who have come from their respective capitals.
Thank you. |
