Investors do not feel confident because they are not sure if the policies taken by the interim government will be in place for long, said Debapriya Bhattacharya, head of the white paper panel on economy, yesterday.

Speaking at an event at Dhaka University, he said he wondered whether enough has been done on economic reforms in the last six months.

The interim government suspended the implementation of the 8th Five-Year Plan prepared by the Awami League government.

But the authorities have not taken any medium-term plan even though the white paper panel on the state of the economy recommended making plans for at least two years.

"We have said that private investment does not take place without a medium-term, target-oriented policy framework. Now everyone in the private sector is saying that they are uncertain about making investment decisions," said Debapriya, a distinguished fellow of the Centre for Policy Dialogue.

He was speaking at the 6th Bangladesh Economic Summit at DU.

Debapriya said the panel on the white paper and the task force on re-strategising the economy analysed various aspects of the economy and set benchmarks, but no target has been set for six months or a year, he said.

The interim government is working on the budget given by the previous government, he said.

We have not seen anything based on which we can evaluate the performance of the interim government, he said.

At another session, Hossain Zillur Rahman, chairman of the Power and Participation Research Centre, said that for a long time, infrastructure development has been considered as a growth driver, ignoring the need for increasing skilled and sustainable employment.

"This growth model needs a review," said the former adviser to a caretaker government.

CPD Distinguished Fellow Prof Mustafizur Rahman, Chairman of Department of Economics at Dhaka University Prof Masuda Yasmeen, and Prof Selim Raihan of economics at Dhaka University also spoke.