National Budget 2021-2022 of Bangladesh titled “কোà¦à¦¿à¦¡-১৯ কালীন সময়ে অরà§à¦¥à¦¨à§ˆà¦¤à¦¿à¦• পà§à¦°à¦¬à§ƒà¦¦à§à¦§à¦¿: বাজেটের à¦à§‚মিকা” /“Economic Growth during COVID 19 and the Role of Budget 2021-22”
Organized by South Asian Institute of Policy and Governance (SIPG) and School of Business and Economics (SBE) of NSU
Over the past decade, Bangladesh has made remarkable progress in poverty reduction, supported by sustained economic growth. It and has been among the fastest-growing economies in the world because of the demographic dividend, the extraordinary success of the garment industry, and substantial inflow of funds from expatriate Bangladeshi workers. However, the rosy picture of economic and human development has always been shrouded with the prevalence of high income inequality, pervasive corruption, economic mal governance, and jobless growth. It can be easily asserted that these problems have plagued Bangladesh for decades, and the country still struggles to find a way out of it.
The impact of the worldwide breakout of COVID-19 has been largely disruptive in Bangladesh. In addition to the impact on health, GDP growth decelerated, and poverty increased including many other long-term economic implications. Due to frequent lockdowns, millions of people lost jobs, many people reverted under the poverty line, and numerous businesses folded up.
The national budget of this fiscal year is expected to address the economic shock of COVID-19. As the pandemic is not over and predicted to linger into the next year, the budget must indicate the policy measure to uphold the economic normalcy and bolster growth. The policy measure would be the protection of small and medium-sized businesses by providing soft loans, stimulus packages to increase demand, the protection of new and old poor population as well as other vulnerable populations by expanding the safety net program of the government. In addition to this, a clear path must be sketched out to curb corruption, increase accountability and transparency in spending public money, otherwise, the allocation of funds will go in vain.
As a leading academic institution in Bangladesh, the North South University NSU) finds it fitting to organize a webinar to discuss the challenges in the formulation and implementation of Bangladesh National Budget 2021-22 given the ongoing situation of the coronavirus pandemic. Therefore, the South Asian Institute of Policy and Governance (SIPG) and the School of Business and Economics, (SBE) of North South University (NSU) are jointly organizing a webinar titled: Economic Growth during COVID 19 and the Role of Budget 2021-22 on 10 June 2021 at 11:00 am.
Professor Mustafizur Rahman is currently serving as
Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).
Professor Rahman’s areas of current research interest include Bangladesh’s fiscal-monetary policies and macroeconomic performance, trade policies and trade reforms, globalisation, regionalisation and regional trading arrangements, connectivity in Southern Asian region, WTO, multilateral trading system and interests of low income countries, implementation challenges of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Bangladesh, and graduation challenges of the LDCs.
Dr Helal Ahammad is currently serving as Professor of Department of economics as well as Director, Economic Research Platform at North South University. Dr. Ahammad has specialization in conducting research in the areas of
Climate Change Impacts and Mitigation Policies, Agricultural,
Land-use Change and Forestry Economics, Energy and Resources Economics, The Economy of Bangladesh and Development Economics, Trade and International Economics,
Research Methodologies and Frameworks: Computable General Equilibrium Modelling; Integrated Assessment Modelling.
Dr. Sharif Nurul Ahkam is currently teaches as Professor at Department of Accounting and Finance of School of Business and Economics (SBE) along with serving as the Director of Graduate Studies at North South University. He attained DBA from Kent State University, USA and MBA from Kent State University, USA.
Dr. Nazneen Ahmed working as Senior Research Fellow at the
Bangladesh Institute of development Studies (BIDS). Dr. Nazneen Ahmed has specialisation in conducting research in the areas of international trade and regional trade issues, value chain analysis, general equilibrium modeling, institutional, industrial, gender and labour issues.
Dr. Salahuddin M Aminuzzaman is the Professor and Advisor at South Asian Institute of Policy and Governance (SIPG) at North South University. Professor Aminuzzaman has four decades of experience in teaching at various national and international universities as well as acclaimed researcher in the field of Public Administration, Governance and Policy.
Dr. M. Abu Eusuf is serving as Professor of Department of Development Studies and Director, Center on Budget and Policy at University of Dhaka. Professor Eusuf’s areas of research interest include Urban Poverty, Social Protection, Budget, Trade, Water Security and Poverty, Human
Development, Green growth, Corporate Social Responsibility, Microfinance, Financial Inclusion, Water and Sanitation, Health, Property Rights and Land Reform etc.