Bangladesh received a high appreciation from the UK All Party Parliamentary Group for its commendable successes in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), poverty reduction, women empowerment, and transformation of its economy in the recent years. The parliamentarians, who recently visited Bangladesh, also expressed their appreciations and admired the amazing progress achieved in creation of millions of jobs for women and the remarkable transformation from low to high-value end products in the garment sector.

After outplaying several cricketing giants in South Asia including the likes of Pakistan and Sri Lanka, the stunning T20 campaign for Bangladesh finally came to an end this week, as tigers ended up being the runners up for the second straight time. Being the host, the entire cricket loving nation went in a frenzy of celebration at every win of the team, except the final, throughout the Asia Cup. Successful completion of another mega cricket event has once again vindicated that Bangladesh is one of safest countries for holding any big cricketing event.

Infrastructure and Mega Projects

Travel time to and from between Dhaka and Gazipur will be lessened to as little as 20 minutes since the cabinet has approved in principle the draft of the Bus Rapid Transit Act 2016. A dedicated lane for bus would be constructed in the said route with the capacity to transport 40,000 passengers per hour. It would take 42 minutes for a bus to travel the entire route and only 20 minutes to reach the airport from Gazipur. Proposals were floated to incorporate a provision of a $6,480 fine and a 10-year imprisonment for illegal operation of the BRT or illegal handover of operating license.

Growth and Development

Inflation fell 45 basis points to a 41-month low of 5.62% in February from the previous month, propelled by a decline in food and non-food inflation. According to BBS, food inflation stood at 3.77% in February, down from 4.33% a month back, while non-food inflation decreased 28 basis points to 8.46% last month. It also noted that the headline inflation should fall gradually toward 6% by fiscal 2019-20, assuming that monetary policy stays prudent and supply bottlenecks eased.

World Bank’s Vice President for South Asia Region Annette Dixon lauded Bangladesh for its marked progress resulting in stellar growth on a raft of development outcomes, namely on those projects jointly supervised by the global money lender and the government. Wondered at the scale of progress the joint efforts have made in the project areas, the noted economist relayed her optimism that the scope of cooperation would be widened and the present rate of growth would ride on a higher trajectory.

Social Justice and Equity

A nationwide opinion poll carried out by a leading national news portal Bangla Tribune found that an overwhelming majority of 71.35% women appear to have content on the prevailing status of their living in the country. Around 65.33% respondents responded on a positive note about the availability of support inside their families while 52.79% women answered that they have full access to the decision-making procedure in their families. Almost 50% women said aid they have been performing very significant role in shaping the future of their children.

Power and Energy

Multifaceted initiatives are being rolled out by the government with a target to take the electricity generation capacity to 16,000 megawatt (MW) by 2016, 24,000 MW by 2021 and 40,000 by 2031. To that goal, a policy has been approved to make sure 10% renewable energy supply to the national grid by the course of next five years while real gains in that sector saw installation for as many as 4.4 million solar homes under the prudent leadership of HPM Sheikh Hasina. Over the last two years, the distribution lines for electricity supply have been expanded to around 41,148 kilometer, ensuring around 75% people gained access to electricity.

In accordance with the seventh five-year plan that focuses on long-term strategies to meet the primary energy demand for the next 15-20 years, the government has proceeded with a plan to carry out drilling on 100 new wells in next five years for gas exploration. Works are well underway to generate and add 12,853MW of power to the national grid in the next five years, which will require an investment of $21 billion. The disclosure was made by the Prime Minister's Energy Affairs Adviser Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury this week.

International and Regional Cooperation

Towards the goal to open up newer destinations for promotion of trade and investment, the government has come up with a comprehensive plan aimed at fostering and nourishing a stronger tie with Latin American countries. As part of the move envoys of seven Latin American and Caribbean countries paid a visit to Bangladesh, pinning hopes that Bangladesh could be a suitable place for their investors. Moreover, an embassy has been opened in Ethiopia aimed at expanding ties with the African countries.

In a gesture of her unyielding commitment to stand for humanity, HPM Sheikh Hasina has given cash assistance of $1 million to alleviate the plights of the cyclone hit people of Fiji. Cyclone Winston, the worst storm recorded in the southern hemisphere, left 42 people dead and made homeless tens of thousands of people in Fiji. It may be mentioned that the Bangladesh Premier earlier provided cash and food assistance after devastating earthquake in Nepal in April last year.

Trade and Investment

IT experts see huge potential for the hardware industry as Bangladesh ICT-Expo-2016 has showcased the latest products and innovation, receiving growing interest from both local and international businesses. With 14 seminars on different key subjects on ICT, business to business meetings were held during the three-day expo that was attended by nearly 100 renowned international and local ICT brands, companies, and organizations. Cheaper labour cost, along with a tech-savvy generation, has put Bangladesh as the next emerging destination in the sector.

Digital Bangladesh

The authorities opted for using digital technology to hold pre-budget dialogues involving even backwoods persons in a sort of bottom-up approach to government budgeting. The step is being taken especially so that stakeholders in remote and underprivileged areas can share their views through the process, while opinions of stakeholders in the Chittagong Hill Tracts and Haor areas will also be reflected through the discussions so that their voice also get incorporated in the national budget. This will result in the most inclusive budget ever, it is hoped.