The Task Force on Economic Reforms has recommended that the Planning Commission should go through both institutional and operational reforms aimed at streamlining the government’s development activities.
It says the Planning Commission needs to move beyond being a budget-centric entity and evolve into a comprehensive planning agency.
Recently, Planning Advisor Wahiduddin Mahmud submitted the task force’s report titled “Redefining Economic Strategy and Resource Mobilization for Sustainable and Equitable Development”to Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus.
It has recommended incorporating experienced and successful infrastructure and land-use planners into the commission.
Additionally, structural reforms are deemed essential to address ongoing challenges effectively.
To enhance institutional capacity, the Commission must reinforce its institutional strength by recruiting technical professionals with specialised expertise and establishing robust sectoral planning divisions within core infrastructure ministries.
Following the example of other countries, Bangladesh should integrate its registered think tanks to form a national think tank under the Planning Commission that can assist in preparing and updating an integrated multimodal infrastructure development master plan to guide decision-making, according to the task force.
At the same time, it should take on the role of guardian for all sectoral master plans, ensuring coordination and alignment with a comprehensive, strategic, and integrated multimodal master plan.
“The world has progressed significantly, and we must adapt our thinking accordingly. The Planning Commission should be reformed to align with the modern world,” said Mustafa K Mujeri, executive director of the Institute for Inclusive Finance and Development (InM).
“The task force’s recommendations are crucial, and all necessary steps should be taken to break free from conventional practices and modernise the commission,” he added.
The task force believes that a centralised dashboard should be created within the Planning Commission to list and update all national projects.
This dashboard would include planning and socio-economic parameters, historical descriptive data, benefit monetisation factors, and findings from reproduceable feasibility studies. This would enable informed decision-making by referencing the dashboard’s data before approving any future projects.
Besides, an official platform must be developed to disseminate project-related information, ensuring public engagement and transparency.
The task force suggests that the proportion of technical professionals in the Planning Commission should be increased to over 85 percent, in line with successful international models. However, this requires a revision of the existing organisational structure.
It highlighted that the reforms should be implemented based on global best practices.
“Internal reform efforts should align with globally proven methodologies. Accredited professional organizations should be involved in the Planning Commission’s operations to ensure the successful adoption of best practices,” says the report.
The primary goal of the Planning Commission is to ensure the optimal use of available resources to improve the standard of living for all citizens.
According to Article 15 of the Bangladesh Constitution, the state is responsible for ensuring the rapid development of citizens’ living standards across all regions through planned development.
To achieve this objective effectively, the Commission was established on 31 January 1972. It was initially formed with a chairman, a deputy chairman, and three members.
The Minister of Planning was designated as the ex-officio chairman of the commission. To oversee daily operations and exercise executive authority, a deputy chairman with the rank of a minister was appointed. The members held ranks equivalent to state ministers.
At the time of its formation, the commission had 10 divisions, each headed by officials of secretary rank. Later, following some structural reforms, the number of divisions was reduced to four. Additionally, the Implementation, Monitoring, and Evaluation Division (IMED) was brought under the Ministry of Planning, while the Economic Relations Division (ERD) was placed under the Ministry of Finance, and the Statistics and Informatics Division was included under the Ministry of Planning.
