Bangladesh to spend USD 38 bln to fight poverty

BANGLADESH: Bangladesh will spend 2,668 billion taka (about 38.1 billion US dollars) over the next three years to fight poverty with a clear focus on farming, private news agency the bdnews24.com reported Thursday.

Finance and planning adviser of Bangladesh caretaker government AB Mirza Azizul Islam disclosed this to media here after the government approved on Thursday the second poverty reduction strategy paper (PRSP), the main economic development policy document.

The PRSP-2, for three fiscal years ending in June 2011, sets sector-wise goals, giving priority to agriculture.

It also puts emphasis on power, climate change adaptation, and takes into account rising food prices in the global market and the impact of a changed political scenario.

The new PRSP has fixed 7 percent GDP growth for fiscal year 2008-09 (July 2008-June 2009), 7.2 percent for 2009-10 and 7.5 percent for 2010-11.

For 2008-09 fiscal, the average inflation has been estimated at 9 percent, projected to come down to 7.5 percent in 2009-10 and 7 percent in 2010-11.

The first PRSP, which expired this June, was adopted on July 25.

DHAKA, Friday, Xinhua