BNP manifesto: Robust plan needed to finance ambitious commitments, says Fahmida Khatun

Economist Fahmida Khatun, executive director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), has described the BNP's election manifesto as ambitious and challenging.

She shared her insights with The Business Standard on the economic plans and promises outlined in the 51-point manifesto, announced by party Chairman Tarique Rahman at a hotel in the capital yesterday.

Fahmida said the BNP has presented many good plans and promises to the public. However, implementing these promises will require a large amount of funding, and arranging that funding will be the biggest challenge.

"The biggest challenge will be mobilising the additional funds needed after covering routine operational costs, development expenditure and debt repayments," she said, adding that the governance framework and institutional strength necessary to support such financing are currently inadequate. Comprehensive reforms and stronger planning mechanisms will therefore be essential.

The manifesto includes plans covering all socio-economic sectors, such as increasing social safety net benefits and pensions, creating one crore jobs, expanding education and healthcare, and developing banking sector, among others, she said, adding that implementing these plans will require huge funding.

Currently, revenue collection is low, meaning that whichever party forms the next government will need to increase income, Fahmida said.

Taking the proposal to abolish the Financial Institutions Division as positive, she said full independence of Bangladesh Bank is necessary. Policies for restructuring weak banks, as well as strengthening governance and accountability, need to be reinforced.

She also said reforms are needed in tax administration and tax collection, and that deep reforms in the revenue sector are essential.

The CPD executive director said it lacks concrete measures to address the challenges of graduating from Least Developed Country (LDC) status. While industrial protection and trade capacity were mentioned broadly, there was no specific discussion on how BNP would manage the challenges of LDC graduation, particularly for industries facing increased global competition.

She said BNP aims to increase foreign direct investment from 0.45% of GDP to 2.5% through investment reforms. However, no specific targets were set for domestic investment.

Fahmida stressed that greater emphasis is needed on local investment to achieve the target of creating one crore jobs in five years and boosting revenue.