Bangladesh's new cabinet headed by Sheikh Hasina as Prime Minister is set to be sworn in Tuesday evening, after Hasina-led Awami League (AL) won a landslide victory in the parliamentary elections last week.
It is widely believed that a majority of voters, who were disappointed with the performance of the last elected government led by another major party Bangladesh Nationalist Party, are highly expecting AL could bring changes for the country.
However, observers said it is not easy to meet voters' expectation as there are some economic challenges awaiting the new government, particularly in the wake of the ongoing global financial crisis.
Avoiding economy depression, ensuring food and energy security, bringing down food prices and poverty, as well as anti-corruption have been listed as the most urgent issues, as AL has made the above pledges in its ambitious election manifesto "Charter for Change."
A high level panel of the United Nations, who assessed the situation during the national polls, earlier termed the issues of agricultural prices and economy will be major challenges for the new government.
"At the moment, the world is facing economic downturn. It is going to be extremely difficult (for the government to handle the economic troubles)," Francesc Vendrell, the head of the three-member panel dispatched by the UN chief.
Similarly, in the wake of price hike of commodity prices in global markets, the inflation rate in the country, which hit 17-year high at 11.21 percent in November, 2007, still persisted beyond the purchasing power of common people.
Considering possible effects of the global economic meltdown, Asian Development Bank (ADB) has lowered its projection of Bangladesh's GDP growth at 5.5-6 percent in the current 2008-09 fiscal (July 2008-June 2009) while the World Bank made it even lower to 5.4 percent, compared with their earlier estimate of 6.5 percent.
ADB said the country's economy which was highly dependent on exports and inward remittances may have difficulty attaining its initial 6.5 percent growth target, after the growth of 6.2 percent in 2007-08 fiscal and 6.5 percent in 2006-07 fiscal.
According to official statistics, the global recession has taken its toll as the country's export earning in October 2008 fell nearly 70 percent over September 2008 following shrinking demand of its main export item garments in the largest markets in Europe and the United States.
"The government should immediately form a high-powered taskforce for intensely monitoring impacts of global financial tsunami to safeguard the country's economy," economic analyst Mustafizur Rahman told Xinhua on Monday.
Rahman, the Executive Director of leading local think tank Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD), said the government needs to take all out efforts to upgrade infrastructure and improve the investment climate to achieve higher economic growth and bring down the poverty.
Bangladesh suffered a setback in receiving both local and foreign investment in the last two years due to political instability and the failure to reach decisions on large-scale investments. The foreign direct investment came down by 16 percent compared to 2006.
"We want a business friendly environment, less corruption, no hartal (strike) and adequate gas and electricity," said Annisul Huq, president of Bangladesh's apex trade body, the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
Both corruption and shortage of power and energy supply are blamed as hurdles for the development of the country. At present, the country's electricity generation is about 3,500 MW against the demand for about 5,500 MW.
AL in its manifesto said the power supply will be increased to 5000 MW by 2011 and to 7000 MW by 2013, which energy experts said to be real tough challenges as some 4.5 billion U.S. dollars are required.
Besides, Huq said, bringing down poverty and increasing agricultural production are also arduous tasks for the government of Bangladesh, one of the Least Development Countries, where 70 percent of the population is engaged in agriculture sector.
More than 40 percent of the country's 144 million population live below poverty line (1 U.S. dollar a day).
The government needs to take effective measures to reduce the agricultural cost to boost production, like lowering the fertilizer prices, said Rahman, adding that poverty alleviation plan requires higher investment growth.
But, "growth alone can't bring down the poverty, the government needs a broad-based policy and setting up of more and more labor-intensive industries," Sultan Hafeez Rahman, Director General of Pacific Department of ADB, told local daily The Daily Star on Tuesday.
Source:Xinhua
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