Since mid-1980s, the Government of Bangladesh abandoned the practice
of following a five-year plan framework, as a part of longer- t e r m
perspective plan, to pursue economic development. It adopted instead a
three year rolling plan, primarily for operation of public expenditures.
Essentially, the rolling plan approach turned into an exercise of budget
preparation for coming year with assessment of current and previous
years’ progress in expenditures, policies and major indicators of health of
the economy. This shift is consistent with the shift to market-oriented
development strategy, but it drastically narrows down the perspective
within which government’s role as promoter of development can be
assessed and steered.
This book provides an analysis of long-term transformation of the
e c o n o m y, particularly for agriculture and rural development, since
independence. Thus the book fills a gap arising from the change in
planning approach and enables Bangladesh to look at transformation
during the last 3 decades and develop a vision for the coming decades in
the area of agriculture and rural development. Past progress has been
phenomenal, particularly when viewed within the background of dismal
initial conditions. But, though the general direction of policies has been
right, there are many deficiencies in the areas of institutional,
infrastructural, technological, and political developments. The progress
would have been even faster without these deficiencies. However, what
matters now is the future prospects if these deficiencies are not corrected
in the coming years. Bangladesh is at the crossroad of the trajectory
towards the status of a middle-income economy. Without the corrective
measures at this stage, the possibility of economy missing the upward
trajectory is very real.