Two More Administrative Divisions are Likely to be Established along with Mymensingh

The cabinet in this connection today directed the Cabinet Division to examine the feasibility and utility of the establishment of two other administrative divisions--one comprising the districts of greater Faridpur and another comprising the districts of greater Comilla and Noakhali.

The Cabinet Division was also asked to undertake necessary actions for formation of a new administrative division in greater Mymensingh.

The directives came from the regular weekly meeting of the Cabinet held at Bangladesh Secretariat today with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said that the Cabinet Division would now form an inter-ministerial committee and submit its recommendations before the National Implementation Committee on Administrative Reforms (NICAR) for final decision.

He said that the Prime Minister in the meeting observed that although there is no such necessity now to form new division, new district and new thana following the development of the country's communication system.

But, there is a necessity to establish new division to decentralise the administration, ensure people's empowerment and reach the services to the doorsteps of the common people, she said.

Bhuiyan said that before taking of the final decision at the NICAR, the Cabinet Division will form an inter-ministerial committee, examine the implications and then put forward the necessary recommendations in details to NICAR.

The cabinet meeting was also apprised of the comparative socioeconomic advancement and macroeconomic status during the period of 2009-2014 with 2001-2002 to 2005-2006.

The report submitted by the Finance Division said that there was macroeconomic stability in the last five years as there was steady growth while there were marked improvements in the key economic indicators. The report said that the average GDP growth over the last five years was 6.14 percent, the public investment rose to 7.3 percent in the last five years compared to 5.6 percent during the BNP- Jamaat rule, the power generation capacity in the last five years tripled while the per capita income more than doubled, the revenue-GDP ratio rose to 10.5 percent in the last five years from 8.5 percent during the BNP-Jamaat government.

Besides, in the last five years, the ADP size increased three times so as the imports, exports and remittances, the overall budget size quadrupled, the foreign currency reserve rose to six times while there was also marked improvement in social sectors like education, health and sanitation.

The cabinet secretary said that the poverty rate in the last five years reduced to 26.2 percent from 40 percent, extreme poverty rate to 11.9 percent from 24.2 percent, inflation rate reduced to 6.11 percent in last December alongside the declining trend of child mortality, maternal mortality and the low growth of population. To maintain this advancement in the socioeconomic and macroeconomic sectors, the Cabinet gave a directive to the authorities concerned for going towards higher growth achievement, attracting higher investment, raising productivity, efficiency and enhancing ADP implementation capacity.

For this, there is a need for increasing revenue collection through capacity building of the NBR as well as raising the non-tax revenue. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the meeting directed the concerned Ministers and Secretaries to speed up the ADP implementation of the development projects under their respective ministries and divisions.

The cabinet was also apprised of the participation of the Industries Minister in the G-77 Ministerial Meeting on Governance of Natural Resources and Industrialization held on November 28-29, 2014 in Bolivia.

Ministers and state ministers attended the meeting, while secretaries concerned were present.