Executive Director of South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM) Dr Selim Raihan has proposed a two-year recovery plan for Bangladesh instead of the 8th Five Year Plan now. He chalked out eight points noting that the recovery plan will aim at taking the economy back to the December 2019 state, reports UNB. Dr Raihan also proposed to delay the beginning of the 8th Five Year Plan by two years and said it needs to be re-written. He said a large part of it seems to be irrelevant at this stage, according to his proposals shared with the media. He suggested devising fiscal stimulus packages and monetary policies to support the RMG, other export-oriented and domestic-market oriented industries and SMEs. He also talked about devising and extending social protection programmes for a vast number of marginalised, near-marginalised and a large section of suddenly vulnerable population, undertaking some ‘politically feasible’ policy reforms in the areas of trade, tax, banking sectors and explore ways for generating resources (domestic and external) to support the fiscal stimulus and eased monetary policy measures. Dr Raihan suggested suspending the LDC graduation target by at least three more years and raising the voice at the global level to push the SDG target year from 2030 to 2035. Bangladesh has so far reported 70 coronavirus cases and eight deaths. The government has shut down educational institutions, mass transports and urged people to stay indoors to curb the spread of the virus. Economic activities have almost come to a halt. The readymade garment factories reported cancellation or suspension of orders amounting to $3.02 billion until April 5. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday announced four new stimulus packages of Tk 677.50 billion to overcome the possible economic shock from the ongoing shutdown enforced due to the coronavirus outbreak. With the previously announced Tk 50.00 billion stimulus package, the amount of the whole package now stands at Tk 727.50 billion.
