Meeting future development targets

Achieving future development targets will be tough for Bangladesh without ensuring improved economic diplomacy and superior human resources after it graduates from least developed country (LDC) status, said eminent economist Dr Wahiduddin Mahmud on Monday.

He said Bangladesh's development so far came through well utilisation of low-wage women labour in the RMG sector and low-skilled migrant workers.

Citing "what got you here won't get you there", a famous quote by American author Marshall Goldsmith, he said, "The same development model may not work in the near future without advancing skills in different sectors."

He made the observations at the launch of a book, titled 'The Odds Revisited - The Political Economy of Development of Bangladesh', organised by the Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh (PRI) at a hotel in the city's Gulshan.

Prime Minister's Adviser for Economic Affairs Dr Mashiur Rahman addressed the event as the chief guest, while Professor Dr Wahiduddin Mahmud spoke as the guest of honour and Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC) Executive Chairman Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman as a special guest.

Presided over by PRI Executive Director Dr Ahsan H Mansur, the event was also addressed, among others, by former director general of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) and author of the book Dr K A S Murshid, PRI Chairman Dr Zaidi Sattar, and BIDS Senior Research Fellow Dr Kazi Iqbal.

Continuing his speech, Dr Mahmud said within 10 years of the Second World War, defeated countries like Germany and Japan recovered from economic crises just because of skilled workforce.

To deal with future challenges, Bangladesh will also need to improve its human resources to keep pace with the post-LDC world, he said.

Many people underline Bangladesh's development success rather surprisingly because it can't be explained from a single point of view as the economic growth came with a combination of efforts.

Referring that there have always been concerns over good governance and authoritarianism, he said, "Accountability has been absent in the country's political culture..."

However, regardless of the government type, everyone used poverty reduction as a major tool to legitimise their respective regime, added Dr Mahmud.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Zillur said, "The long-term view of the country was sketched nicely in Mr Murshid's book, at the same time, it is also important to look into the near-term view ... say, last 10 years to understand what will happen in next 10 years."

Many schools and health facilities have been established in the country in recent decades but quality of education in those schools and services in hospitals have become major concerns, he noted.

Emphasising the importance of social, political and cultural space, he said, "Reduction in competitiveness in different sectors is not primarily ideological to the history of Bangladesh."

Earlier, introducing the book, Dr Murshid said increasing food production and reducing population growth were in the centre of development policies taken by Bangladesh which gave the country great leverage over the years.

He said over the years, the country's development mainly came due to stability of the economy which led to better outcomes in social developments.

In the meantime, citing reference from the book about the situation of education in the country, prime minister's Adviser Dr Mashiur said while the dropout rate of girls from high school is around 12 per cent, it is 28 per cent for boys as they start looking for economic opportunities before finishing the school.

"There is some sort of flaw in the country's education system," he said, adding: "If there were scopes of studying work-oriented vocational education apart from general one, many of these school dropouts may take that chance thinking about early livelihood."

Mentioning the role of subsidy in boosting food production in the country, he said the subsidy in agriculture shouldn't be just seen as mere subsidy, instead it should be considered as long term investment support to the farmers.

Summing up the discussion, PRI Executive Director Dr Ahsan H Mansur said Dr Murshid in his book identified four key growth drivers of Bangladesh - enhanced food production, RMG export, labour migration, and rapid urbanisation.

Besides, the role of development partners has also been significant in Bangladesh's development story as many of the programmes for socio-economic change were executed with their funds through NGOs, Dr Mansur added.

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