Planning Minister, MA Mannan, on Saturday said that the government alone could not achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and that the private sector should come forward towards achieving SDGs in the stipulated time frame.
“We are getting opinions from the national and international levels about achieving SDGs. The private sector should come forward and play a role in achieving SDGs. Government and the private sector should work together to achieve SDGs in the stipulated time frame,” he said at discussion jointly organized by planning ministry and UNDP held at the Hotel Inter-Continental in the capital.
The minister said, the government is observing and working for achieving SDGs in due time. The government is committed to achieving SDGs to build a developed nation by 2041. “We all should work together,” he added.
Among others, principal coordinator to the Prime Minister’s Office on SDGs, Abul Kalam Azad, representative of UNDP to Bangladesh Sudipto Mukharjee and chairman of North South University Trustee Board, Benzir Ahmed were present at the programme while senior secretary of General Economic Division (GED) Dr Shamsul Islam chaired the discussion.
Speakers at a discussion said, it is not easy to add private sector in SDGs. The main obstacle was in the government policy about SDGs. The government is trying to ease the matter.
They underscored the need for developing public private partnership (PPP). The private sector should invest more in the country’s development, they also said.
The speakers underscored sending remittance properly to the country. About 1.40 crore people are now living in different countries. Expatriates are sending 16 billion dollars in remittance to Bangladesh. It is a big income source of the country.
The government has provided two percent incentive on remittance to encourage expatriates to send money to the country. The government has already allocated Tk 3060 crore for this. The government started giving two percent incentive to the expatriates from July 2019. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina instructed giving two percent incentive aimed at increasing remittance flows.
