Called in to cut the time for project completion

Prof Shamsul Alam, a member of the planning commission's General Economy Division (senior secretary), is set to be sworn in as state minister for planning at the Bangabhaban today.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is going to give him the post as part of government efforts to reduce delays in projects' implementation and waste of public money, said highly-placed sources in the government.

Increasing costs of different government projects in line with repeated extensions of the work tenures has become a common affair. On multiple occasions in the recent past, the PM called upon different ministers and government officials to save public money by completing projects on time, said the sources.

Talking to The Daily Star, Prof Alam said his main focus would be on improving the projects' management and ensuring their quick implementation.

"I want the projects to be implemented speedily, ensuring their quality," he said.

Prof Alam said the media highlights the suffering of people in different parts of the country and that he would keep records of such news articles and TV reports.  

"Whenever I would come across such a piece of information, I would immediately communicate with the ministers and officials concerned to address the people's sufferings," he said.   

Prof Alam said he would try to keep up the dynamism created in the general economic sector over the last 12 years.

He further said, "Talking from my experience, I saw 40 percent of the total budget goes to development, including in financial and social sectors. Therefore, we will want to expedite the projects and their implementation."

Besides, he said, he would try to increase foreign investment and if needed, related policies would be changed or amended through discussions.

Prof Alam has worked as a member of the General Economy Division (GED) since 2009 and his contract ended on June 30 this year.

He joined Bangladesh Agricultural University as a teacher in 1974 and continued the job till 2009. He achieved honours and master's degrees from the same university in 1965 and 1973 respectively.

He received Ekushey Padak in 2020 for his contribution to the country's economy.

Prof Alam spent long years, from 1974 to 2015, as a faculty of Bangladesh Agricultural University.

During his tenure in academia, he served as a post-graduate visiting professor at Humboldt University, Germany, University of Ghent, Belgium, and at the School of Development Economics, Wageningen University, Netherlands.

After having 35 years of academic and research experience, Prof Alam joined as a Member of Bangladesh Planning Commission on 1 July 2009.

Since then he has been the longest-serving member of the Bangladesh Planning Commission in its history.

Prof Alam led the preparation of National Planning Documents as Member, General Economics Division, Bangladesh Planning Commission during 2009-19 period; some of which are Sixth Five Year Plan FY2011-FY15; Revised Accelerated Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper II (FY09-FY11) entitled, "Steps Towards Change"; "Perspective Plan of Bangladesh 2010-21- Making Vision 2021 a Reality"; National Sustainable Development Strategy (2011-2021) and First and Second Implementation Review of the Sixth Five Year Plan (1912).

He also guided the preparation of the Bangladesh National Social Security Strategy (2015-2025), and the Seventh Five Year Plan (2016-2020).

He led the preparation of the Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100 and the Bangladesh Vision 2041 and the associated Perspective Plan.

Due to the pandemic situation, the oath-taking ceremony will be organised at a small scale with the presence of some senior ministers, Prof Alam told The Daily Star yesterday.