Finance adviser Salehuddin Ahmed on Tuesday ruled out that unemployment had reached a danger level, observing that employment generation was always challenging.
鈥楯ob creation largely depends on the private sector,鈥� he said while answering a question that the unemployment situation reached an alarming stage as expressed by economists and think-tanks recently.
The finance adviser, who was talking to reporters after a meeting of the advisory council committee on government purchase at the secretariat, said that employment was always affected if the overall trade and commerce slowed down.
Admitting that the economic activities were a bit down because of the change in the regime in August 2024, the finance adviser said that trade and commerce had bounced back in the current calendar year.聽
The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics is yet to release the size of the unemployed population for the first quarter or the January-March period of 2025.
But its final review of the Labour Force Survey 2024 聽showed that the number of unemployed people in the country increased to 27.3 lakh in the fourth quarter of 2024 compared with the 24 lakh in the same period of 2023.
Unemployment reached a three-year high at 3.66 per cent at the end of 2024, mainly in urban areas due to factors like high inflation, costly bank loans, and a slowdown in private sector investment.
In the past month, the Power and Participation Research Centre, a research and policy advocacy organisation, released findings of a survey titled 鈥楾he state of the real economy: household realities and policy options towards strengthening economic democracy鈥� calling unemployment the central fault line.
The PPRC also said that the country was facing an employment emergency as 38 per cent of those counted as employed were underemployed, working less than 40 hours a week.
Criticising the economists, the finance adviser said that many were hyping the unemployment situation to get attention.
Answering another question, the finance adviser said that the interim government was taking initiatives to create employment by expediting the implementation of the projects at the local level.
Giving the example of a project taken in Habiganj in Sylhet, he said that it linked to improvement of local infrastructure and creation of employment.
He also said that they were also trying to generate employment by facilitating facilities needed for businesses.
Earlier, the finance adviser presided over the meeting of the advisory council committee on government purchase and approved several proposals, including the procurement of one cargo of LNG and 75,000 tonne of fertiliser.
M/S Aramco Trading Singapore Pte Ltd will supply the LNG cargo, the 47th cargo under the current calendar year, at a cost of Taka 499.16 crore, while 35,000 tonne of MOP fertilizer will be imported from Russia at Tk 154.90 crore and 40,000 tonne of聽 MOP fertilizer from Canadian Commercial Corporation at Tk 177.03 crore.
Later, the finance adviser said that the interim government had been procuring LNG not from a specific single source, but rather from various sources in line with its demands after comparing international prices.
鈥楴o, we鈥檙e not importing LNG from a single source... the government is procuring LNG from various sources, be it the USA, China, or Saudi Arabia, after comparing international prices, and it鈥檚 not easy (to import LNG from a single source without following rules,鈥� he said.
The committee meeting also recommended approval for a proposal for repair works at the Bibiyana South 400 MW Combined Cycle Power Plant under the Bangladesh Power
Development Board at a cost of Tk 901.85 crore by a consortium of Siemens Energy Global GmbH & Co KG, Germany, and Siemens Energy Bangladesh Limited.
Focusing on current visit of the USTR delegation to Bangladesh, he said that they were in a comfortable position to negotiate tariff-related issues with the US as the trade gap with the USA was narrowing.