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PM-BUDGET-THIRD
The premier said that the budget was mainly dependent on the foreign grants during other governments, adding, “The foreign grants in budget was 6.4 percent while it now stands at only 0.8 percent due to the Awami League government’s initiatives to increase income and ensure overall development after assuming office in 2009.”
Once the country’s development budget was largely dependent on foreign grants, but now Bangladesh is financing 90 percent of the development budget from its own resources, she said.
“We have become self-defendant and self-respectful nation by reducing dependency on foreign grants as the government has attained the skill to this respect,” she also said.
Highlighting her government’s initiatives in various sectors for ensuring overall socio-economic development of the country, the prime minister said, “We have achieved huge progress in various indices of the development such as education, health, human and social development.”
In this context, she said, the literacy rate was 65.5 percent during the Awami League government in 1996 while it had been reduced to 53.7 percent in 2006 (during the tenure of BNP-Jamaat government). And now it has stood at 72.9 percent, she said.
The life expectancy of Bangladeshi people has increased to 72.8 years in 2019 from 65 years in 2006 while the per capita income was $ 543 during the FY 2005-2006 and it is now $ 1909 in 2019, she informed.
Mentioning that the poverty rate is reduced to 21.8 percent from 41 percent while the hardcore poverty rate is reduced to 11 percent from 25 percent, she said. “We have set a target to reduce the poverty rate to 16 to 17 percent and hardcore poverty rate to 4.5 percent, attain the per capita of $ 2750, achieve export target of 72 million US dollars and generate 28,000 megawatt electricity.”
“I personally believe the proposed budget for the FY 2019-20 will play a vital role in achieving the targets,” the premier added.
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