Embrace Flying Bricks & Bouquets: Biman Prasad
Finance minister Biman Prasad defended the Government’s decision to host a two day national economic summit, saying: “We have been criticised over the cost of the Summit and some of our spending choices.
“That is all right. That is what democracy is about. Those who bear responsibility for these decisions – like me - must embrace the flying bricks as well as the bouquets.”
Mr Prasad is expected to provide an update of the summit breakdown of costs related to the consultative process.
He said on the Thursday, the summit was about the future.
“We cannot even begin to think about the future, if we do not have the real-time data, ground truths and solutions that you all know intimately from your diverse spheres of lived expertise.”
It was suggested that nonGovernment participants be more involved in the planning, Mr Prasad said.
“The current machinery of Government is simply not attuned to genuine consultation and collaboration,” he said.
“This is a process we must re-learn.”
The absence of a genuine economic summit for the last 16 years created wrong thinking that only one group of people – or even one person – had a monopoly on good ideas, he said.
“That is why we now lack good processes for collaboration with those outside the Government,” Mr Prasad said.
“Over the years, these have been lost.
“We no longer even have a network of people outside the Government who we can call on and talk to.
“Part of this first Summit is about re-weaving this network, to know the people out there who can help us in our work.”
For those who said he spent so much time talking about Government processes and not about the economy, Mr Prasad the processes needed to be corrected for changes to be seen.
“This summit is an important part of a new process,” Mr Prasad said.