Govt moves to create 15m new jobs in 10 years

The government has taken an initiative for creating 15 million new jobs in next 10 years by taking advantage of planned Chinese relocation of labour-intensive industries abroad, sources said.
The move has been taken to raise the country's annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth to 10 per cent from the present 6.0 per cent. This is essential to attain the Vision 2021 and 2041 set by the government, they said.
Sources said the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) is coordinating the process and has already asked the ministries and departments concerned to work for creation of increased number of jobs.
The ministries and departments have been asked to make estimate of fresh manpower to be needed each year. They have also been asked to prepare a roadmap on employment creation.
Officials said such a big number of jobs will be created following setting up of more special economic zones. Alongside the government initiatives, private sector and foreign-owned economic zones will also be established generating more employment opportunities.
In this regard, the authorities concerned have finalised the private economic zones policy recently allowing individuals to set up such zones across the country.
A delegation of the World Bank (WB) recently met officials of the Board of Investment (BoI) and discussed possible ways for creation of 15 million new jobs.
The delegation also submitted five-point proposals to the BOI officials in this connection. The World Bank proposed to the government to negotiate with the Korean Export Processing Zone (KEPZ) to provide space to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) needing to be relocated.
It also suggested allowing bonded warehouse to other high potential industries alongside garment sector with the support from the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank.
The WB team also proposed to hire a chief operating officer to enhance the capacity of the Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA) as it was done in case of the public-private partnership (PPP) unit with support from the World Bank.
The team suggested for immediate framing of economic zones implementation rules for the private sector.  Besides, it pleaded for consolidating the boards of various state organisations including BEZA, BOI, private EPZ cell and Privatisation Commission with representatives of the private sector and from the workers under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister.
The World Bank presented five-point strategic action plan to attain the goal of employment creation.
It suggested that BEZA should develop 40,000 acres of land for creation of new industrial zones. Besides, the Ministry of Finance should improve import regimes to facilitate import of inputs necessary for export.  
The WB also called for the PPP office to facilitate provisions of key infrastructure and the central bank to provide more funds to export-oriented industries.
It suggested for undertaking skill development programmes for workers to get increased productivity from them.