Some Tk 31,903 billion will be required for implementation of the seventh five-year plan, 90.4 percent of which will come from domestic sources, according to the draft plan. The plan was placed at yesterday’s meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council. The government will invest Tk 7,252 billion and the private sector Tk 24,651 billion, as per the estimate. Under the five-year plan, which starts in fiscal 2015-16 and ends in fiscal 2019-20, the government aims to take the investment-gross domestic product ratio to 34 percent. The government will implement the infrastructure-related big projects, which will facilitate increased investment from the private sector, Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said after the meeting. At the meeting, Shamsul Alam, member of the General Economics Division, made a presentation on the draft plan. In the next five years, the average GDP growth has been estimated at 7.4 percent. The GDP growth will cross 7 percent this fiscal year and 8 percent in the last year of the plan. None of the average GDP targets in the previous five-year plans were achieved. During the new plan’s tenure, infrastructure will get much attention, with the government aiming to complete the Padma Bridge and the 26km Dhaka elevated expressway. About 856 kilometres of new rail-tracks will be laid and electricity from the Rooppur Nuclear Power plant generated. The waterways and rail will be pushed for transportation of goods, as these are environment-friendly and cost-effective. Building a deep-sea port and the Payra seaport, the MRT-6 project and the liquefied natural gas terminal will be given emphasis under the plan. For investment, getting energy easily is a precondition. In the next five years, 12,584 megawatts of electricity will be generated, 61 percent of which will come from the public sector and 39 percent from private sector. Electricity will be produced from the big public sector plants instead of signing agreements with the new quick rental ones. In future, the energy demand for household consumption will be met from coal and LNG. The contribution of agriculture to the GDP will be brought down to 12.99 percent in 2020 from 16.1 percent in 2014. The industries’ share will increase from 27.6 percent to 33 percent in 2020, while that of the service sector will drop to 54.1 percent from the existing 56.3 percent. In the new five-year plan, the target for new employment generation has been set at 1.29 crore, although 99 lakh new people will be added to the workforce during the period. The export target has been set at $55.1 billion and remittance at $25.39 billion.
