Finance Minister A H M Mustafa Kamal said on Wednesday the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war has created pressure on all, and the upcoming budget will focus on ways to come out from the economic uncertainties.
"The war is definitely causing pressure. Everyone has to pay attention to this war situation."
The minister was briefing newsmen after a virtual meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase.
Asked if he is facing any pressure in budget preparation, he answered in the negative.
"No, we are not facing any pressure. We want the war to end soon. When we are making recovery from impacts of the pandemic, the war has begun."
Asked which areas are getting importance in the budget preparation, Mr Kamal said (handling) the ongoing global economic uncertainty will get top priority in the next budget. "How we can make our economy vibrant despite this uncertainty will get importance."
Replying to a query on whether the present high inflationary pressure will have any political implications, the minister said he does not think so.
"Our emphasis is on how to face the ongoing challenging time," he said, adding challenging time is very hard, but it also creates scope.
"So, we have to properly utilise the scopes to be created. The Covid pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war will create extended scopes for us."
Mr Kamal, on another question, said in this global economic crisis the way Bangladesh is running - is the best administration, is the best part of management.
"Even we could not do better than now in the normal situation," he added.
The cabinet body meeting, chaired by the finance minister, approved import of 3.336 million MMBTU liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Gunvor Singapore Pte Ltd at a cost of Tk 8.38 billion.
The committee also approved procurement of integrated lawful interception system, geo-location system and related services from Intersec SA, France at a cost of Tk 1.72 billion for the National Telecommunication Monitoring Centre under the Ministry of Home.
The meeting further approved purchase of 27 types of drugs for 14,014 community clinics at a cost of Tk 2.09 billion.
Ten more procurement proposals of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, relating to gas-field drilling, got approval in the meeting.
syful-islam@outlook.com