The draft heavily hammers on women empowerment, improving the overall education standard, increasing private-sector involvement, governance, decentralisation of power etc.

Finance Minister M Saifur Rahman will present the draft paper to the donors' Local Consultative Group (LCG), parliamentarians and politicians in mid-March for discussion. Following the discussions, the government will adopt the PRSP for implementation in 2005 to 2007.

"The donors want to use the PRSP as the central focus of their future aid," said a planning ministry source.

"On behalf of the donors, the World Bank is now analysing the government's Annual Development Programme (ADP) to see how their future aid can be pumped into the ADP in the light of the PRSP," he added.

According to the draft, the salary of teachers at all levels will be based on performance to ensure that they provide quality education.

In addition, the government will introduce a common core curriculum for madrasa and general education.

The government will also introduce performance-based distribution of Monthly Payment Orders (MPOs) to enlisted private secondary schools with an aim to reduce corruption in the education sector.

To protect women's rights, the government will adopt a uniform family code and enforce the legal age for marriage. It will amend the citizenship act, 1951 and the Bangladesh Citizenship Order, 1972 to allow women the right to transmit their citizenship to their children and spouses.

The government will also introduce and enforce anti-sexual harassment laws or codes of conduct, implement the existing laws and introduce workplace safety to protect women from hazardous work.

It will remove all restrictions on women workers for international migration. It will also distribute khas (public or state-owned) land among the female members of families, specially the widows, separated and deserted women.

The government will attempt to supply gas through pipeline or in cylinders to rural households, incorporate women in the managing committee of Palli Bidyut Samities (rural electrification committees), and introduce quota for women in road construction work.

The government will include women members of parliament in all its standing committees and encourage women leaders to participate more in the political process.

In governance, the government will raise the existing rate of land transfer tax to union parishads (UPs) from 1 percent to 5 percent. It will also provide extra-ADP budgetary supports to well performing UPs.

To conserve the environment, the government will ban plying of 15-year old vehicles and phase-out two-stroke auto-rickshaws. It will recover wetlands, rivers, canals from land-grabbers to ensure an efficient drainage network in cities.

For import liberalisation, the government will reduce the average protective tariff down to 20 percent.

To encourage growth of the private sector and small and medium enterprises, the government will set up a national commission with policymakers and private sector experts.

Besides, it will reform labour laws preventing politicisation of trade unions.

The government will make unused public lands available for private investment as well as acquire lands and give them to private investors through the Board of Investment.

It will set up a new agency for loan recovery and form a new investment finance company.

In communications sector, the Dhaka-Chittagong highway will be upgraded to an express way.