development projects
COVID-19 forces govt to categorise ongoing development projects
As COVID-19 has potentially triggered an economic slowdown which may lead to a possible fund crunch in the coming days, the government has planned to put its ongoing development projects in three prioritised categories for monitoring and budget allocation in the next fiscal (2020-21).
The three categories are: high priority, medium priority and low priority ones.
"The government has made the list aiming to have a better monitoring on the ongoing projects under the ADP which we had not done since 2009," Planning Minister MA Mannan told UNB.
In the past, he said, the government used to give importance to all of its projects equally and there were some mega projects, too.
"Nationally, mega projects used to get attention. This time, the priorities have been categorised just because of the coronavirus (and its impact on the economy). Normally, it was not supposed to be like this," the minister said.
MA Mannan said the government has to move forward with the prioritised approach while implementing the ADP. "We’ll allocate for the high priority projects first -- like health and agriculture sector. These sectors will get the highest attention," he said.
Talking about the ongoing mega projects of the government, he said the projects like Padma Bridge and Metro Rail have become part of the national psyche. "People are waiting with high hopes to see these projects implemented…we cannot reduce focus from these, not at all, and we won’t do it either," he said.
The bureaucrat-turned-politician, however, said if the current situation prolongs then the government has to review the projects under these three categories from time to time.
According to sources at the Planning Ministry, the size of the proposed ADP for 2020-21 fiscal will be Tk 205,145 crore where the number of the projects will be around 1,500.
4 years ago