Committee on White Paper to look into foreign loan agreements signed over years: Dr Debapriya

The Committee on the preparation for "White Paper on the State of Bangladesh Economy" would look into the loan agreements signed over the years especially the loan agreements signed in the energy sector.

"If the agreements on foreign loans that were signed over the years are available, then we will evaluate those. We will definitely look in to those. Especially, we have thought of looking in to the agreements on energy sector," Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya told reporters emerging from the second meeting of the Committee that was held at the Planning Commission on Tuesday.

Dr Bhattacharya, Distinguished Fellow at Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) and Convener of the Citizen's Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh, said that in the meeting they have chosen specifically the issues which will get priority, reports BSS.

"We have identified those matters accordingly. Allocation of work has also been distributed among the members of the committee. At the same time we have also decided the method of preparing this report," he said.

They also mentioned that the Committee will look after the available data for formulating the report, on the other hand, they will consider those data and information in a cynical manner.

"We will also scrutinize the credibility of those available data as well as compare those with international standards," he added.

The chair of the Committee said that the available researches in these fields will also be considered while preparing their report. "We will also evaluate those and thus try to move forward."

The eminent economist of the country mentioned that the biggest matter is that they will discuss the matters with various stakeholders and experts in sociology, economy and political science both at home and abroad to take their opinions.

"We have taken decision to move forward our works within the next two months," he said.

Dr Debapriya also mentioned that the topics of the discussions will feature general economy, macro economy as well as sectoral issues like heath, education and energy.

"Banking, resource mobilisation, revenue collection, smuggled money, mega projects, poverty alleviation and disparity will also be there in their focus," he said.

Dr Debapriya stated that they have planned the preliminary works and within next three days they will get the initial outlines of their works. "The main thing is that the committee has already started its works," he added.

The government has formed the committee for the preparation of a comprehensive "White Paper on the State of Bangladesh Economy" with Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya in the chair.

Other members of the committee are- Professor AK Enamul Haque, Dean of Faculty of Business and Economics, East West University, Ferdaus Ara Begum, Chief Executive Officer, Business Initiative Leading Development (BUILD), Imran Matin, Executive Director 0f BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD), BRAC University, Dr Kazi Iqbal, Senior Research Fellow of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), Dr M Tamim, Professor of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) and former Special Assistant to the Chief Advisor (2008), Dr Mohammad Abu Eusuf, Professor of Department of Development Studies, University of Dhaka, Professor Mustafizur Rahman, Distinguished Fellow, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Dr Selim Raihan, Professor of Department of Economics, University of Dhaka, and Executive Director, South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM), Dr Sharmind Neelormi, Professor, Department of Economics, Jahangirnagar University, Dr Zahid Hossain, former lead economist, World Bank and eminent columnist attended the meeting while Dr Tasneem Arefa Siddiqui, former professor, Department of Political Science, University of Dhaka, and founding chair, Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU).