HPM Sheikh Hasina for well-thought long-term development plan

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina laid utmost importance upon formulating a long-term plan for overall development of the country and sought well-thought out ideas in this regard particularly from the bureaucrats to prepare the nation’s development pathway for 2041.

“We have already started working upon preparing the plan for 2021-2041 and if you have any idea or plan to supplement, you can submit it to the government to make a better roadmap,” she said.

The Prime Minister said this while addressing a function on the occasion of signing the Annual Performance Agreement (APA) of various ministries and departments for the fiscal year 2018-2019 at her Tejgaon office here today.

Sheikh Hasina urged the government employees to work with devotion and sincerity for proper implementation of the big budget of this fiscal year saying, the nation’s progress largely depends on their dedicated services.”

“We, the politicians, show the roads of development and it’s your duty to implement those development works” she said adding that Bangladesh, for its prosperity, needs development in a quicker pace.

Referring to the introduction of the APA module by her government, the prime minister said the system has expedited the implementation of the development plans as well as its quality of the work.

On the occasion, the prime minister also inaugurated the SDGs Implementation Review Conference 2018.

The prime minister said the government officials and employees at all levels have to toil a little more to achieve all specified goals of development. They have to perform their duties with more efficiency.

The government has introduced the method of APA in 2014-2015 fiscal year for the public sector to ensure institutional transparency, accountability, proper utilization of resources and, above all, enhancing the institutional efficiency.

The main purposes of introducing the Annual Performance Agreement are- moving the focus of the ministry from process-orientation to result-orientation and providing an objective and fair basis to evaluate overall performance of the ministries and divisions at the end of the year.

This is for the 5th time that such an agreement has been signed between the Cabinet Secretary on behalf of the Prime Minister and the concerned secretaries for the ministers.

Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, State Minister for Public Administration Ismat Ara Sadeq, Cabinet Secretary Md. Shafiul Alam, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) Md. Nojibur Rahman and Chief Coordinator on SDGs in the PMO Abul Kalam Azad spoke on the occasion.

Secretary of the Cabinet Division (Reform and Coordination) Ziaul Alam and Md. Mofizur Islam, Secretary of the Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation (IME) of the Planning Ministry also spoke on the occasion.

Cabinet members, PM’s Advisors, secretaries, heads of various departments, senior officials and diplomats of different countries were present.

The prime minister gave away certificates to the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs and the Ministry of Agricultural and IME Division for their best performance according to the APA during the 2016-2017 fiscal year.

Sheikh Hasina also gave away Integrity Award-2017-18 to the IME Division of the Planning Ministry for showing the highest performance in accomplishing its annual activities.

Speaking on the occasion, she said, “I wish to see every village as a town where people will get all urban facilities. Neither a single person will remain without education and home and nor they would suffer from hunger or lack of healthcare services, she said.

“I know our country is small in size with a huge population. So it’s a daunting task for us. But, we have the power to overcome all the hurdles and we have proved our indomitable capacity many times in the past.”

“Bangladesh has lost many years without any visible national progress. Had Father of the Nation been alive, I can undoubtedly say that Bangladesh would have been a developed country in only ten years,” she said.

Sheikh Hasina said her government assumed power in 1996 targeting some specific plans. At that time, she said, the county had secured many successes in the areas of socio-economic development. But the success could not be sustained due to change of the regime in 2001.

“Now, we are trying to implement the development projects in a more quicker pace as we don’t want repetition of our past experience and we are striving to take country to a position in the shortest possible time,” she said.

Sheikh Hasina said the government employees should enhance their efficiency and accountability by implement the programs taken by the government for welfare of the people.