The draft PRSP sets a goal that the nation has to achieve if it is to take off economically. However, there are certain problems and limitations which need to be resolved, or at least lessened, before the PRSP can attain its objectives. Corruption and wastage of resources, for example, still pose a serious threat to proper execution of any development strategy. Unfortunately, the quality of governance that is needed to curb these maladies is missing in our context.

There is a contradiction in our economic profile in that some social indicators are very positive but social inequities remain in the absence of distributive justice. The result is that the benefits of growth are not reaching the general people. Obviously, poverty reduction in the ultimate analysis will depend on creation of a socio-economic order where the fruits of development will be shared equally by the people. This is the overarching poverty alleviation issue.

The draft plan sounds realistic in the sense that the possibility of reduced export growth rate, as envisaged in it, cannot be ruled out in the post-MFA era. It poses a challenge to the development planners and so does the decline in farm sector production. The government must adopt rejuvenation measures to maximise agricultural productivity.

We believe these are the basic premises upon which the PRSP has been developed. The sustained GDP growth that the plan aims to achieve can materialise only if private investment goes up along with an increased FDI inflow. We have to, however, create an atmosphere that proves congenial to the realisation of such objectives.

If the political and law and order situations do not improve progressively, the goals envisaged in the PRSP will be hard to attain within the stipulated time.

Therefore, we put emphasis on not just the political will of the government but also the extended use of it to draw the opposition parties into a dialogue for the sake of a total national effort going into the implementation of poverty alleviation strategies.