The government has endorsed the 8th five-year plan (FYP) with a target to boost the country’s economic growth to 8.51 per cent by its terminal fiscal year 2024-25 recovering from the Covid-19 impact.
The plan, which also aims to reduce the poverty to 15.6 per cent by FY2025, was approved at a virtual meeting of the National Economic Council (NEC) on Tuesday.
NEC Chairperson and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina presided over the meeting from Ganabhaban through a videoconference. Ministers, state ministers and others concerned joined the meeting at the NEC Conference Room and also from the secretariat.
The General Economics Division (GED) under the Planning Commission framed the five-year development plan, to be implemented between the current FY2021 and FY2025.
After the meeting, Planning Minister MA Mannan briefed journalists saying the 8th FYP had set a target to boost its GDP growth to 8.2 per cent at the end of the current FY2021.
He said some 11.33 million new jobs would be created during the 8th FYP implementation period between FY2021 and FY2025.
The government would require a total Tk 64.96 trillion worth of funds for achieving the 8th FYP targets, Mr Mannan said.
Out of the investment, Tk 57.48 trillion funds or 88.5 per cent would come from the government’s internal resources while Tk 747.59 billion or 11.5 per cent from the external resources, the Planning Minister said.
According to the 8th FYP, it has target to expand Bangladesh’s GDP growth by 8.22 per cent in FY2022, 8.29 per cent in FY2023, 8.32 per cent in FY2024 and 4.51 per cent in FY2025.
The 8th FYP has also vowed to cut poverty to 23 per cent in FY2021, 20 per cent in FY2022, 18.5 per cent in FY2023, 17 per cent in FY2024 and 15.6 per cent in the terminal FY2025.
The development plan has also set a target to pick up the gross investment to 36.99 per cent of the total GDP in the final FY2025 of the 8th FYP.
Planning Minister MA Mannan said the government wants to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs) by the stipulated time 2030.
The 8th FYP would be helpful for achieving the SDGs and becoming a developed nation by 2041, the minister said.
