Strategy for reducing disparities among regions on the cards

FE Team | Published: August 31, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

FHM Humayan Kabir
The caretaker administration has started preparation of a strategy paper in order to remove economic disparity among the regions in the country.
The General Economic Division (GED) of the Planning Commission (PC) has started working on the strategy paper that will dwell on the reasons for higher poverty rates and economic inequality in some regions and suggest possible remedial measures, official sources said.
According to the Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) 2005 of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), the Barisal Division was on the top of the poverty index with a 52 per cent rate of poverty in terms of upper poverty line.
The poverty rate in the Rajshahi Division was 51.2 per cent, followed by 45.7 per cent in Khulna, 34 per cent in Chittagong, 33.8 per cent in Sylhet and 32 per cent in Dhaka, the BBS survey showed.
Sources in the GED, the chief adviser in April this year asked the finance and planning adviser to form an expert committee to prepare the strategy paper that would identify the reasons for higher poverty rates in Barisal, Khulna and Rajshahi divisions and necessary measures to alleviate poverty there.
As per the instruction, the government has formed a five-member committee, led by the Member of the GED, in late May and identified its action plans for preparation of the policy paper, the sources added.
The sources said the committee in its first meeting in July 19 discussed about outline of the proposed strategy paper and necessary strategy for reduction of poverty rates and economic disparity among the less developed regions.
A high official in the PC said the expert committee is expected to complete drafting of the strategy paper by September 30 this year.
Finance Adviser Mirza Azizul Islam in early August informed the CA about the progress on framing the strategy paper by the GED, a source in the PC said.
Meanwhile, a World Bank (WB) report on regional inequality in Bangladesh 2000-2005 showed that the poverty rate in terms of upper poverty line was 50 per cent in less integrated regions (LIR) and 33 per cent in integrated regions (IR), real per capita expenditure being Tk 1046 in LIR and Tk 1207 in IR.
Another WB report on changes in employment in Bangladesh 2000-2005 said labour force participation from the poor household still lags behind their richer counterpart in terms of education. "Gross enrollment rates in secondary school from the poor were only 8.0 per cent compared to 96 per cent for the rich," it quoted.
Meanwhile, a high official in the PC told the FE that the caretaker administration had taken seriously the matter of gap in resource distribution among the regions.
He said the government allocated Tk 29.535 billion under the current fiscal's annual development programme (ADP) for the most deprived northern region (Rajshahi Division). The allocation is Tk 7.57 billion or 34 per cent higher than that of the revised ADP of last fiscal 2006-07.
For another deprived southern region -- Khulna and Barisal divisions--- the government allocated Tk 26.53 billion in the current ADP. The ADP allocation for the region is Tk 7.86 billion or 42 per cent higher than that of the revised ADP of the last fiscal, he informed the FE.
The government allocated a total of Tk 265 billion in the current ADP.