The National Economic Council (NEC) on Tuesday approved the Annual Development Programme (ADP) involving Tk 225,324 crore for 1,426 projects for the 2021-22 fiscal year with focus on transport and communications, power, housing, education and health sectors.

Among the approved projects, 1,308 will be investment ones while 118 will be of technical assistance.

The approval to the ADP was given at an NEC meeting held at its conference room. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who joined the meeting from her official residence Ganobhaban through videoconferencing, presided over it. 

Planning Minister MA Mannan said Tk 11,469 crore also was allocated for autonomous entities.  

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Of the Tk 225,324 crore, an amount of Tk 137,300 crore will come from internal sources while Tk 88,224 crore from foreign sources.  Of the Tk 11,469 crore of the autonomous entities, the internal sources will provide Tk 6717 crore while the foreign portion will be Tk 4751crore.
 
The Planning Minister said the number of development projects for the next fiscal year for autonomous entities will be 89. 

The total number of development projects will be 1515 involving Tk 236,793 crore. 

Transport sector will get Tk 61,631 (27.35%) while power sector Tk 45,668 crore (20.36%), Housing and Community facilities Tk 23,747 crore (10.54 crore), Education Tk 23,178 crore (10.29%), Health Tk 17, 307 crore (7.68), Local government and rural development Tk 14, 274 crore (6.34%), Environment, climate change and water Tk 8,526 crore (3.78%), Agriculture Tk 7,665 crore (3.40%), industries and economic services Tk 4,638 crore (2.06%) and Science and Information Technology Tk 3,587 crore (1.59%).

Local Government Division will get the highest allocation of Tk 33, 896 crore followed by road transportation and highways division Tk 28042 crore, Power Division Tk 25, 349 crore, Science and Technology Ministry Tk 20, 634 crore, Railways Ministry Tk 13, 558 crore, Health Service Division Tk 13, 000 crore, Secondary and Higher Secondary Division Tk 11, 920 crore, Bridges Division Tk 9,813 crore, Primary and Mass Education Division Tk 8, 022 crore, and Water Resources Ministry Tk 6,871 crore.

Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant will get the highest allocation in the next fiscal with Tk 18426.16 crore followed by Matarbari Ultra Super critical Coal Powered Power Project Tk 6162 crore, Primary Education Development Programme-IV Tk 5053.98 crore, Dhaka Mass Rapid Transit Development Project (Line-6) Tk 4800 crore, Padma Bridge Rail Connection (1st amended) Tk 3823.51 crore, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Railway Bridge Tk 3580 crore, Padma Multipurpose Bridge (2nd amended) Tk 3500 crore, Dhaka-Ashulia Elevated expressway Tk 3227.20 crore, Expansion and Strengthening of Power System Network under DPDC Area Tk 3051.11 crore and Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport Expansion (1st phase) (1st amendment) Tk 2827.52 crore.

While briefing reporters after the meeting, minister Mannan said that the Prime Minister has given some directives, including one not to appoint foreign consultants indiscriminately to development projects.

Read:Ambitious ADP worth Tk 2.13trn on the cards

“Foreign consultants will be appointed as per requirement, not indiscriminately. We won’t appoint consultants blindly, they’ll be appointed as per need after scrutiny,” he said.

The minister said the Prime Minister asked the officials concerned to complete the projects that have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Stressing the importance of research, the Prime Minister directed all the ministries to utilise their funds properly that will be given for research.

In the next fiscal ADP, Tk 4,147 crore has been earmarked as block allocation against the new projects of which Tk 2,893 crore will be mobilised from local sources while Tk 1,254 crore as project loan.

Some 596 unapproved new projects have been incorporated in the new ADP without any allocation while 141 new unapproved projects have been included in the new ADP subject to the availability of foreign funds.  

There are 88 projects to be implemented under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) while 356 projects have been earmarked for completion by June 30, 2022.  

Besides, 73 projects that were supposed to be completed by June this year will be completed by the next fiscal year (FY22).  

The Planning Minister said the economy of Bangladesh is performing well despite the shock of the pandemic due to the good performances in the agriculture sector and also for the domestic labour and the hard-earned remittances being sent by expatriate Bangladeshis.  

Read:NEC approves Tk 197,643-cr revised ADP

Referring to the recent attainment of $2,227 per capita income, Mannan said the per capita income has witnessed a jump of 9 percent despite the pandemic and this shows the resilience of the domestic economy.  

He also said the current size of the country's GDP is Tk 30,111 billion or $355.04 billion.  

Replying to a question, the Planning Minister said the Ministry of Health has attained a very good capacity over the years in implementing development projects.

He said although there was a bit of sloth in the operation of the Health Ministry when the Covid-19 hit the country last year, it regained momentum in its operation and subsequently made a pick up within the next one or two months after the attack of the pandemic.