Economic growth needs to be pro-poor: Experts

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FE Report
Speakers at a workshop in Dhaka Monday underlined the need for devising strategies soon to reduce economic disparity among different regions of the country.
They felt that problems of the less-developed regions and districts needed to be identified first before taking up remedial measures.
Speakers who included economists and researchers stated that though the poverty had been declining for the last one and a half decades, the gap between the rich and the poor as well between different regions were widening. This development, they said, remains a major obstacle to sustainable economic growth of the country.
Only economic growth cannot reduce the income inequality as well as regional disparity if the growth is not pro-poor, they said at a workshop on "Poverty Determinants, Employment Patterns, Education Trends and Regional Differences" in the city.
The Washington-based multilateral lender--World Bank - organised the workshop.
Economist Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya said: "There have to be measures to increase the wages and income of the poor and ensure their ownership to land, increase remittance flow and allocation to the less-developed regions in order to reducing regional inequality as well as poverty in the country."
Another economist Hossain Zillur Rahman said the policy makers have to decide whether they want only economic growth or the growth that is biased towards the poor.
The economist opined that the source of disparity and the areas affected by such disparity need to be identified first before taking up policies address that.
Zillur underlined the need for increasing the average income of the poor people, ensuring their access to quality education and better infrastructures like gas and power.
Appreciating Bangladesh's poverty reduction rates during the year 2000-2005, Hassan Zaman of the World Bank, said: "While the Bangladesh's relative inequality has not worsened, similar rates of consumption growth for upper and lower ends of the distribution imply that absolute inequality has widened."
Dividing economic disparity between the East and West regions of the country, Hassan said though poverty is declining rapidly in Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet regions. The situation is not the same in Rajshahi, Khulna and Barisal regions. Disparity among the regions has been as obstacle to poverty alleviation activities, he said.
Former member of the Planning Commission, Quazi Mesbahuddin Ahmed, opined that construction of the Padma bridge and another bridge in the upstream of the Jamuna river would help reduce regional disparity.
Economist Dr Atiur Rahman said the poverty rate in the "char" areas of the country is much higher than the notional poverty rate.
World Bank Country Director Xian Zhu suggested that more workers from the country's western region should be sent abroad to help reduce inequality and regional disparity.
Leading economist Professor Wahiduddin Mahmud, Executive Director of the BRAC, Mahbub Hossain and some other local researchers also spoke on the occasion.