Muhith for higher capacity building than higher allocation

Finance minister AMA Muhith on Wednesday said enhancing capacity for quality expenditure was more important than increasing allocation for children in the national budget.
He made the statement while addressing a function for launching a booklet titled Shishuder Budget Paath Shohaika, a joint initiative of the finance division and UNICEF, in the capital’s CIRDAP auditorium.
Answering to a question by a child, Muhith said he did not know how much allocation would be given to the Child Budget in the next fiscal year from 15 per cent in the current budget.
Earlier, experts attending the function said the government had scopes to increase allocation to the Child Budget that was introduced in 2015-16 fiscal year.
Policy Research Institute executive director Ahsan H Mansur said 15 per cent allocation to children in the current national budget was not high.
He said it would be difficult for the country to attain the target of middle income country status in 2021 without improving human resources.
UNICEF Bangladesh representative Edouard Beigbeder said the government should increase budgetary allocation for child-related initiatives to 20 per cent by 2020. 
No investment would be more effective and efficient than investing for children to give them a good start in life, he said.
Muhith said the government would conduct a survey to know people’s understanding about national budget in 2017.
He said the interest toward budget was growing as more and more people wanted to know about its measures.
He said they would seek proposals from children to strengthen the child budget.
Secretary of finance division Mahbub Ahmed and secretary of ministry of women and children affairs Nasima Begum also attended the booklet launching ceremony.
Mahbub Ahmed said the government had conducted a survey about people’s concept on budget in 2003.
Nasima Begum said 4,800 clubs across the country would be launched in the next fiscal year for grown up children so that they could share their ideas and views with each other. 
Finance ministry’s joint secretary Habibur Rahman highlighted the booklet that is divided into four chapters with elaboration of budget making process and the importance of child budget.
He said the publication aimed at increasing awareness on public finance among adolescent boys and girls and its impact in their wellbeing. 

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