8.5pc growth is possible 'if certain conditions fulfilled'
Friday, 26 November 2010
FE Report
Bangladesh can achieve a 7.0 per cent increase in annual per capita income and 8.5 per cent in economic growth if certain conditions are fulfilled, said economist Professor Wahid Uddin Mahmud Thursday.
"Conditions including a reasonably stable democratic system with higher domestic resource mobilization and ADP implementation, accelerated infrastructure development and improvement of export related infrastructure like ports can help the country achieve such growth rates," he said.
He was speaking at the launching ceremony of the Least Developed Countries (LDC) report 2010 at the city. The UNCTAD released the report worldwide yesterday.
"If no major political unrest occurs, the private sector will lead the country towards economic growth rate at 7.0 per cent within the next couple of years," Dr Wahid stated.
The LDC report divides 49 poor countries into four categories and these are African energy exporter LDCs, other African LDCs, Bangladesh and other Asian LDCs.
"Bangladesh stand alone among all the LDCs and that's why UNCTAD has classified it as a separate category," Dr Wahid explained.
Bangladesh does not match with other LDCs in terms of population size and national income, he said adding, "Ethiopia has half of the population of Bangladesh but its GDP size is one-fifth of the Asian country."
Dr Wahid said capital flight from Bangladesh is much more than the amount it receives from foreign countries and organizations.
"Rich people of the poor country buy property in developed countries and if these can be stopped we don't need any foreign aid," he said adding, "There should be global consensus to have cooperation in stopping illegal capital outflows."
The noted economist said unlike most of the countries in the world, Bangladesh has little tax on property and no gains tax.
"It is a paradox that people invest in sectors other than real estate as here land owners can make windfall gain by selling property,' he said.
Dr Wahid said technology transfer is a big problem and if Bangladesh does not rely on tech-based manufacturing sector, it will be difficult for it to have sustainable development in the long run.
The support scheme for LDCs is not enough as the poor countries do not have any voice in the global economic system.
"LDCs do not need separate scheme rather it will be enough to have some special provisions in the global general economic system formulated by G-20," he said.
Former adviser Mirza Azizul Islam said during the last four decades many conferences and seminars were held on LDCs but the fate of the poor countries has not changed.
"Out of the 49 countries only two graduated from the LDC status in the last four decades and I am not that optimistic that the situation will improve in the next decade," he said.
Rich countries committed that they would contribute 0.15 to 0.20 per cent of the national income as official development assistance (ODA), but they failed to comply with the promises.
"The official ODA is only 0.09 per cent of the GNI of the developed world and big donors including the US, the UK and Japan have not succeeded in fulfilling their commitment," he said.
Mr Aziz said foreign aid is not need-based rather it is political decision.
"Per capita aid of Bangladesh is less than $10 whereas it is over $100 for Israel," he said.
"Bangladesh needs to pursue for more foreign aid, but at the same time it must increase its capacity to utilize that fund," he said.
The amount of aid committed but not disbursed now stands at $9 billion and if the country does not increase its implementation capacity, there is no use of securing more aid commitment, he added.
The European Union (EU) has provided everything but arms (EBA) facility to Bangladesh but it is facing tariff barriers problems to other developed countries including the US.
"RMG export from Bangladesh faces 15 per cent tariff in the US while export from the UK or France faces much lower tariff and it is a serious discrimination," Mr Aziz said.
The poor countries do not have any voice in global economic governance where G-20 dominates but 15 per cent of the global population live in the LDCs, he added.
The former adviser said there is a lack of commitment from the politicians towards the development of the country.
"Political consensus is needed for the economic development and priority should be to mobilise domestic resources," he said.
Member of Planning commission professor Shamsul Alam said the country lags behind in human resource development.
"We don't think much about quality of education and it is gradually declining," he said adding, "Only 3.0 per cent of the population has vocational training whereas in South Korea it is 86 per cent."
Ambassador Waliur Rahman said the LDCs are not getting help from the United Nations.
"If we can export our manpower properly, the country can earn $30 billion to $35 billion a year," he said.
The report titled, "Towards a New International Development Architecture (NIDA) for LDCs" elaborated the situation of the poor countries.
The report assumed that Bangladesh will have $2,776 PPP adjusted per capita income in 2020 and its national income will be $511 billion.
The proposed NIDA has five major pillars, which relate to both the global economic regimes and South-South development cooperation.
The pillars are finance, trade, technology, commodities and climate change.
The report suggested reform in international financial structure and multilateral trade regime and formulation of an international commodity policy.
It also said that there should be an international knowledge architecture and a regime for climate change adaptation and mitigation.
Bangladesh can achieve a 7.0 per cent increase in annual per capita income and 8.5 per cent in economic growth if certain conditions are fulfilled, said economist Professor Wahid Uddin Mahmud Thursday.
"Conditions including a reasonably stable democratic system with higher domestic resource mobilization and ADP implementation, accelerated infrastructure development and improvement of export related infrastructure like ports can help the country achieve such growth rates," he said.
He was speaking at the launching ceremony of the Least Developed Countries (LDC) report 2010 at the city. The UNCTAD released the report worldwide yesterday.
"If no major political unrest occurs, the private sector will lead the country towards economic growth rate at 7.0 per cent within the next couple of years," Dr Wahid stated.
The LDC report divides 49 poor countries into four categories and these are African energy exporter LDCs, other African LDCs, Bangladesh and other Asian LDCs.
"Bangladesh stand alone among all the LDCs and that's why UNCTAD has classified it as a separate category," Dr Wahid explained.
Bangladesh does not match with other LDCs in terms of population size and national income, he said adding, "Ethiopia has half of the population of Bangladesh but its GDP size is one-fifth of the Asian country."
Dr Wahid said capital flight from Bangladesh is much more than the amount it receives from foreign countries and organizations.
"Rich people of the poor country buy property in developed countries and if these can be stopped we don't need any foreign aid," he said adding, "There should be global consensus to have cooperation in stopping illegal capital outflows."
The noted economist said unlike most of the countries in the world, Bangladesh has little tax on property and no gains tax.
"It is a paradox that people invest in sectors other than real estate as here land owners can make windfall gain by selling property,' he said.
Dr Wahid said technology transfer is a big problem and if Bangladesh does not rely on tech-based manufacturing sector, it will be difficult for it to have sustainable development in the long run.
The support scheme for LDCs is not enough as the poor countries do not have any voice in the global economic system.
"LDCs do not need separate scheme rather it will be enough to have some special provisions in the global general economic system formulated by G-20," he said.
Former adviser Mirza Azizul Islam said during the last four decades many conferences and seminars were held on LDCs but the fate of the poor countries has not changed.
"Out of the 49 countries only two graduated from the LDC status in the last four decades and I am not that optimistic that the situation will improve in the next decade," he said.
Rich countries committed that they would contribute 0.15 to 0.20 per cent of the national income as official development assistance (ODA), but they failed to comply with the promises.
"The official ODA is only 0.09 per cent of the GNI of the developed world and big donors including the US, the UK and Japan have not succeeded in fulfilling their commitment," he said.
Mr Aziz said foreign aid is not need-based rather it is political decision.
"Per capita aid of Bangladesh is less than $10 whereas it is over $100 for Israel," he said.
"Bangladesh needs to pursue for more foreign aid, but at the same time it must increase its capacity to utilize that fund," he said.
The amount of aid committed but not disbursed now stands at $9 billion and if the country does not increase its implementation capacity, there is no use of securing more aid commitment, he added.
The European Union (EU) has provided everything but arms (EBA) facility to Bangladesh but it is facing tariff barriers problems to other developed countries including the US.
"RMG export from Bangladesh faces 15 per cent tariff in the US while export from the UK or France faces much lower tariff and it is a serious discrimination," Mr Aziz said.
The poor countries do not have any voice in global economic governance where G-20 dominates but 15 per cent of the global population live in the LDCs, he added.
The former adviser said there is a lack of commitment from the politicians towards the development of the country.
"Political consensus is needed for the economic development and priority should be to mobilise domestic resources," he said.
Member of Planning commission professor Shamsul Alam said the country lags behind in human resource development.
"We don't think much about quality of education and it is gradually declining," he said adding, "Only 3.0 per cent of the population has vocational training whereas in South Korea it is 86 per cent."
Ambassador Waliur Rahman said the LDCs are not getting help from the United Nations.
"If we can export our manpower properly, the country can earn $30 billion to $35 billion a year," he said.
The report titled, "Towards a New International Development Architecture (NIDA) for LDCs" elaborated the situation of the poor countries.
The report assumed that Bangladesh will have $2,776 PPP adjusted per capita income in 2020 and its national income will be $511 billion.
The proposed NIDA has five major pillars, which relate to both the global economic regimes and South-South development cooperation.
The pillars are finance, trade, technology, commodities and climate change.
The report suggested reform in international financial structure and multilateral trade regime and formulation of an international commodity policy.
It also said that there should be an international knowledge architecture and a regime for climate change adaptation and mitigation.