Finance and Planning Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury on Sunday said the government would ensure full independence of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) and make reliable data accessible to strengthen evidence-based policymaking and restore public confidence in official statistics.
“Data is the most important asset on a government’s balance sheet. Without accurate data, there is no scope for moving forward,” he said at a a discussion marking the National Statistics Day 2026 at the BBS auditorium in Dhaka.
He said government officials aligning their work with the programmes and priorities of an elected government was a normal practice in democratic countries, expressing satisfaction that Bangladesh was gradually moving away from its past administrative culture.
“If the government manipulates data in any way, it is simply deceiving itself,” he said, adding that sound data was essential to assess the country’s actual economic condition, identify problems and design effective policies.
Emphasising the need to democratise the economy alongside political democracy, Amir Khosru said statistics must be credible, reliable, measurable and transparent to earn public trust.
The minister said the government had conducted a forensic audit to examine the underlying weaknesses in the country’s economic data, not to find fault with any previous government.
He stressed that policymakers must understand the root causes of economic problems before taking corrective measures.
Khosru said the government was moving towards a digital infrastructure to ensure proper data collection, management and accessibility.
He cited South Korea’s emphasis on digital infrastructure, saying it was increasingly essential for governments and citizens.
Referring to the proposed ‘One Citizen, One Wallet, One Card’ initiative, he said accurate and interconnected information was necessary to ensure transparency in public services.
He assured that the BBS would receive full independence to carry out its responsibilities and said the government was also addressing its manpower shortages, with some measures already taken and more to follow.
The minister said the data collected by the BBS belonged to everyone, including researchers, policymakers and citizens, and should be made publicly accessible.
“Open data is an open page. The more we open up data, the more feedback and criticism we will receive, helping us identify mistakes and make corrections,” he said.
Political Adviser to the Prime Minister and Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Planning Ministry Zahir Uddin Swapon said the entire process of collecting, interpreting and organising information and transforming it into knowledge for policymaking must follow scientific methods.
He said reliable statistics were among the most important instruments available to a state for making sound decisions and implementing development plans.
Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance and Planning Dr Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir said statistics had been used as a tool to mislead people over the past 17 years, turning official figures into instruments of misinformation.
He said the government was pursuing three major reforms in the national statistical system: ensuring internationally standardised statistics, improving evidence-based public service delivery and making data easily accessible.
Titumir said the government was working to improve the scientific basis of national accounts, including GDP calculations, and introduce geolocation-based data collection to ensure that field-level information was properly gathered.
Citing discrepancies in past data, he said the previous government’s census had recorded only 13,000 engine-powered boats, whereas a subsequent assessment found the actual number to be around 267,000.
He said the government was also introducing scientific methods to identify eligible beneficiaries of social safety net programmes, including through proxy means testing, to reduce errors in selecting recipients.
He said the government was also working towards interoperability among different public databases, including population records, birth and death registration and national identity information, under a digital public infrastructure framework.
Titumir said the government would formulate an Open Data Policy through consultations rather than imposing it, allowing universities, researchers and other institutions at home and abroad to access official statistics.
State Minister for Planning Md Zonayed Abdur Rahim Saki said the government had decided to remove political interference from the publication of statistics, with Consumer Price Index (CPI) data now being collected through computer-assisted personal interviews and published directly from the database without requiring ministerial approval.
Secretary of the Statistics and Informatics Division Md Firoz Sarker chaired the programme.
BBS Director General Md Shamimul Haque delivered the welcome address, while BBS Director Kabir Uddin Ahmed made a presentation on the modernisation of the national statistical system and its future plans.
Professor Dr Syed Shahadat Hossain of Dhaka University, also president of the Bangladesh Statistical Association, and Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) Director General Dr A K Enamul Haque participated in the discussion.
The Statistics and Informatics Division and the BBS jointly organised the programme under the theme ‘Reliable and Accessible Statistics – The Foundation of Sustainable Development and Planning’.