Improvement in institutional governance and regulatory management in Bangladesh's financial sector is sine qua non for higher economic growth with all in society taken on board.
Such a piece of suggestion came Friday at the third working session of the 20th Biennial Conference 2017 of Bangladesh Economic Association (BEA). The session, titled 'Economics and Ethics: Poverty and Inequality Issues', was held at the Institute of Diploma Engineers Bangladesh (IDEB) in Dhaka.
Three pillars of sustainable development, which ensures inclusiveness and propriety, were also pointed out by Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) distinguished fellow Professor Mustafizur Rahman at the meet.
"Triangulation of the three pillars of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) -- economic growth, social inclusiveness and environmental sustainability -- is vital for economic growth and development of Bangladesh," he said.
To ensure this three-dimensional progress, the issues related to institutional governance and regulatory reform need to be addressed, Prof Mustafiz said.
Mr Rahman presided over the session where researchers, including Kalyan Mistry, Dr Prashanta Kumar Banerjee, Dr Mihir Kumar Roy and Ajit Kumar Ghose, presented findings of separate studies covering the areas of microcredit for rural poverty alleviation, stockmarket and economic growth, and effect of microfinance on micro-entrepreneurs.
Mentioning that Bangladesh has become a lower-middle-income country from a lower-income one, the CPD distinguished fellow said because of the transformation, the country will have to take loans from different sources at higher costs.
The World Bank (WB) used to offer loans to Bangladesh at 0.75 per cent interest due its low-income status, but from recent times, the country has been taking WB loans at 2.0 per cent interest, he added.
He pointed out that though the country is a middle-income one now, it is still under the category of least-developed country (LDC) and that Bangladesh will graduate from the current status by 2024.
However, the country's exporters will not enjoy duty-free facility to most of the countries in the world after 2024, which will push Bangladesh towards new challenges.
A redeeming feature is that if the country can maintain a continuous growth over 10 per cent per annum in the days to come, the current per-capita income of US$ 1,610 might reach $10,000 within 21 years, the economist said.
Countries like Japan, Singapore, South Korea and China in the last century had grown, he added.
Talking about relation of economics and ethics in achieving SDGs, he said there are 17 goals and 179 targets under the SDGs most of which are related to ensuring quality education, decent job, social inclusiveness and environmental sustainability.
Achieving these targets closely depends on ethical practice in the relevant sectors, he told the meet.
The three-day 20th biennial conference of BEA ends today (Saturday) holding four other working sessions and a concluding ceremony where Deputy Speaker of parliament Md Fazle Rabbi Miah will be present as the chief guest
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