The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) on Tuesday (Feb 22) approved a total of 10 projects involving an overall estimated cost of Taka 8,804.10 crore.
The approval came at the 11th meeting of the ECNEC in the current fiscal year (FY22) held with its Chairperson and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
The premier joined the meeting virtually from her official Ganobhaban residence while ministers, state ministers, Planning Commission members and secretaries concerned attended the meeting from the NEC Conference Room in the city's Sher-e-Bangla Nagar area.
State Minister for Planning Dr Shamsul Alam, Planning Commission Members and Secretaries concerned were also present at the briefing.
Briefing the reporters after the meeting, Planning Minister MA Mannan said: "Of the total project cost, Taka 8,515.87 crore will come from the government of Bangladesh, Taka 120.78 crore from the concerned organization's own fund while the rest of Taka 167.45 crore from project assistance."
Of the projects, a Tk 1,059.10 crore scheme was approved in the meeting for developing the optical fiber transmission network of Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTCL) for expanding 5G network in the country.
The main objective of the optical fiber network upgradation project is to spread uninterrupted state of the art telecommunications network and modern broadband internet facilities across the country.
Besides, the optical fiber transmission network of the BTCL will also be developed and expanded to meet the growing demand.
The BTCL under the Post and Telecommunication Division will implement the project by December 2024.
The project aims to raise the data transmission speed to 100 gigabits per second (Gbps) at upazila levels.
Mannan also said the premier also emphasised the need for gradually coming out from the subsidy system in the power and energy sector.
"It's a serious matter and we must get out of this subsidy system. The process will start and this has to be done gradually and gently," he said.
Prime minister Sheikh Hasina also directed the concerned authorities to set up Novotheatres under a big project in those districts which do not have at the moment, Planning Minister added.
Meanwhile, the planning minister informed that the Annual Development Plan (ADP) implementation status during the July-January period of the current fiscal year (FY22) is 30.21 percent which was 28.45 percent during the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year (FY21).
BDST: 1956 HRS, FEB 22, 2022
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