Academics, researchers and rights activists on Friday said that the next national budget should focus on increasing the country鈥檚 human resource capacity to reduce import and dependency on foreign skills.
They made the demand while addressing a discussion titled 鈥榃hat kind of budget do we want in Bangladesh after the mass uprising?鈥�
Gonotantrik Odhikar Committee organised the discussion at the National Press Club in the city.
The speakers demanded increased budgetary allocations for different sectors including education, health, agriculture, energy and culture to make a better Bangladesh.
Economist Anu Muhammad said that the government鈥檚 task was to increase national capacity and it should be reflected in the forthcoming national budget.
Criticising the government鈥檚 move to allow a humanitarian channel to the conflict-ridden Rakhine State of Myanmar, to hand over the Chattogram port to foreign operators and to sign agreements with US-based satellite internet service provider Starlink, Anu Muhammad said that those would not contribute to increase national capacity.
Instead of bringing foreign companies, the government can provide training to eliminate the institutional inefficiencies at the port.
He stated that the government was responsible for formulating necessary ideological, political and economic policies for building a discrimination-free Bangladesh.
It is not acceptable that the government, instead of moving towards that task, creates complications and then becomes emotional, he added.
Urging the government to change the financial year, he suggested beginning a financial year in January or in April considering the needs and circumstances of the country.
Increasing the budgetary allocation for education and health sectors to 5 or 6 per cent of the budget in gross domestic product is a primary and long-time demand, he said, and added that the interim government could set some examples of reforms in the interest of the people by allocating the budget.
He stressed the need to avoid unnecessary expenses and projects, unnecessary foreign travel, bureaucratic complications, and corruption.
To eliminate these, the complete budget, including the expenditure section, must be opened to the people,鈥� he said.
Socialist Students鈥� Front president Salman Siddiqui demanded 6 per cent share of budgetary allocation in the education sector.
A retired professor of Sir Salimullah Medical College, Harun-ur-Rashid, stressed the need for constitutional recognition of health as a fundamental right and demanded the allocation of at least 5 per cent of the GDP in the next budget for the sector.
Dhaka University economics professor Moshahida Sultana Ritu emphasised on increasing budgetary allocation for domestic gas extraction to reduce dependency on imports.
Researcher Maha Mirza, filmmaker Sajeeb Tanvir, researcher Mahtab Uddin Ahmed, activist Marzia Prova, researcher Kallol Mustafa and writer Kaushik Ahmed also spoke.
