Chief Adviser’s Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam on Saturday said after seven and a half months, the interim government has stabilised the country and put it back onto the path of growth.
“But as (Chief Adviser) Prof Yunus Muhammad Yunus said we are still in a war-like situation. It is a war against disinformation and to put Bangladesh back into the global map,” he said.
The Press Secretary, in a Facebook post also said, UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ unprecedented four-day visit was a reflection that they are on the right path. “But it is a long journey.”
Alam said the law and order situation remains their “biggest challenge” and the crime figures clearly show that the situation “has not worsened” as much as projected in the local media.
“But it is understandable that people don't want us to compare figures with the Dictatorship era. The expectations are high. But confidence among police officers is still low. Many urban middle class women are worried about their safety,” he said.
The Press Secretary said attacks on Sufi shrines have declined sharply but some sporadic attacks continued to happen. “More than 50 Hizb-ut Tahrir men have been arrested. But people want more success in our fight against extremism,” he said.
The Commerce Adviser set strategies to boost supply of every essential food item for Ramadan and the goals were achieved in a stunning fashion, Alam said.
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“Inflation has been declining for three months in a row. And in February it was the lowest in 22 months. The airlines and concerned authorities were told to bring down air ticket prices, especially for travels to Saudi Arabia, our biggest manpower market,” he said.
Alam said the prices came down by 75 percent and digitalisation has been progressing at a record pace. “Chittagong Port operations are monitored every minute. Highest diplomatic efforts were mobilised to open up the UAE market.”
And attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) no longer appears to be a tough job, said the Press Secretary.
“The last few months the tide has appeared to turn. By September, we are poised to see major foreign investment in Chittagong Port. Raising the efficiency of the Chittagong Port was thought to be a difficult proposition,” Alam said.
“Now we can see the silver lining. Once the Chittagong Port becomes more efficient, it will have a multiplier effect on the economy,” he said, adding that more FDI will come in manufacturing. “When that happens, prices of essentials would decline. Customs revenue would grow steeply.”
In the first few months, much of the energy of the interim government went to fixing a broken bureaucracy, an outdated and “very inefficient diplomacy” and a discredited police department, Alam said.
As a result, he said, the work and the reforms that the Chief Adviser and the Council of Advisers wanted to accomplish early were slow.
Alam said intensified street protests too occupied much of the interim government’s work and every day they were busy firefighting. “A day was like a month with so many things happening.”
He said six floods in some of the unlikeliest regions of the country complicated things. “Prices escalated as floods wiped out standing crops and vegetables. Low police morals further deepened woes. Although murders and rapes largely tied the trends of the previous years, robberies increased. Many people vented their anger online.”
Alam said things began to change as the interim government fixed the bureaucracy and implemented deadline-based work culture. Laws were drafted in record time.
He said the ministries and departments were given deadlines to achieve their goals. “The doables -- the low hanging fruits -- were targeted.”
The press secretary said the two-decade long KEPZ land problem was resolved in record time. “The ministries were told to deliver the land mutation by February 6. It was delivered right on deadline,” he said, adding that the Starlink deal was given 90 working days to deliver. “It looks like we will get it much before the deadline.”