Senior economists at a conference in Dhaka on Saturday found the rate of private investment too low compared to that of national savings and wanted a balance between the two by offering incentives for the latter.
They also focused on curbing corruption and strengthening institutional capacity for fostering economic growth.
The economists and the policy-makers made these suggestions at a session titled, 'Growth strategies and macroeconomic stability', at the first-ever conference of the Bangladesh Economists' Forum (BEF) at a city hotel Saturday.
Dr Mashiur Rahman, economic adviser to the Prime Minister, chaired the session. Dr Sadiq Ahmed, Vice Chairman of the Policy Research Institute (PRI) presented a paper on 'Searching for sources of growth in Bangladesh'.
Former president of the Bangladesh Economic Association (BEA) Mohiuddin Alamgir presented a paper on 'Vision 2030: Avoiding the middle income trap and jobless growth: overcoming, binding constraints to growth and getting policies and institutions right.'
Dr Zahid Hussain, lead economist of the World Bank Bangladesh and M.G. Quibria of the department of economics, Morgan State University, Maryland also spoke on the session.
Mr Alamgir pointed out three constraints to growth including transport, energy and skill/human resource development.
To overcome the constraints, he pleaded for developing multimodal economic connectivity, promoting sustainable energy and investment in human capital development.
Mr Alamgir recommended linking up of planning and budget and aggressive coal policy.
Dr Masihur Rahman highlighted scarcity of land, modernisation of education and more research on agriculture and technology.
He said land administration is only involved in keeping records of ownership and revenue generation while land development issue has remained ignored.
On private investment, he said the issue to attract private investment needs more priority.
Dr Rahman said it is another puzzle that private investment is lower than national saving rates.
He said there is also no exact picture where remittance is being spent. Dr Sadiq, in his paper, identified policies and institutional reforms that will help improve Bangladesh's future growth prospects.
He said policy effort would need to focus traditional sources of growth including capital accumulation, labour growth, human capital and technology.
"Policies that promote efficiency and improve governance and institutions are particularly important to increase the contribution of total factor productivity growth," he said.
Dr Zahid Hussain said political stability and rule of law are important for smooth economic growth and investment.
He suggested businesses to increase productivity rather than depending on the government's protection.
