Bangladesh will be able to clock in 8 percent economic growth by 2021 if the current pace of development is maintained, Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said yesterday.

“I hope 7.5 percent growth will be achieved in the current fiscal year. If that happens 8 percent growth can be achieved before 2021.”

The budgetary target for gross domestic product growth this year is 7.2 percent.

To maintain the current pace of development, peace has to be maintained in the country, said Sudipto Mukerjee, country director of the United Nations Development Programme.

The comments came at a meeting organised to take the opinion of journalists about the strategies to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

Several journalists including The Financial Express Editor Moazzem Hossain and Jatiya Press Club President Shafiqur Rahman spoke at the meeting. 

The journalists put emphasis on quality development and cutting corruption for achieving the SDGs.

The planning minister said he cannot vouch for the prevalence of corruption but acknowledged that there is waste.

“The big projects taken could not be managed properly, which caused some waste,” Kamal said, adding that the government is working to keep it in check.

Every year, the government evaluates the performance of the ministries separately, said Abul Kalam Azad, principal coordinator on SDGs at the Prime Minister's Office.

“As a result, governance will improve much.” Shamsul Alam, member of the Planning Commission's General Economics Division, made a presentation on SDGs at the meeting.

“Now our biggest challenge is to utilise the demographic dividends by creating enough employment.”  

In the seventh five-year plan, 1.29 crore new jobs will be created, which is more than the number of workers waiting to enter the labour market, according to Alam.