Poverty to prevail unless corruption is contained

Inclusive growth, reduction in inequalities and good governance are among the prerequisites for achieving the target to cut moderate and extreme poverty to 18.6 and 8.9 per cent respectively by 2020, policymakers and experts said Sunday.
Dwelling on challenges to the pivotal target in the new five-year national development plan, they said poverty would remain in the country unless pervasive corruption could be contained.
They suggested the government not to take up similar programmes to address poverty in rural, urban and hard-to-reach areas as the nature of poverty is different area-wise.    
Planning Minister AHM Mostafa Kamal, however, contradicted the allegation of corruption prevalence in the country. There is a perception that corruption is taking place, but to what quantum is not detected at all, he said.
The observations came at a seminar on 'Extreme and Moderate Poverty, Social Protection and Lagging Regions: Targets and Strategies in the 7th Five-Year Plan (2016-20)' at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the city. Ukaid, Bengali daily Bonik Barta and Shiree organised the seminar.
Planning Minister Mr Mostafa Kamal was present as chief guest while State Minister for Finance MA Mannan as special guest. Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC) executive chairman Hossain Zillur Rahman was guest of honour.
General Economics Division (GED) member Shamsul Alam presented the keynote and chaired the event. In his presentation he said poverty reduction and GDP growth are directly linked while addressing inequality can further speed up the process.
"We had to project 7.0 per cent growth between 2016 and 2030 due to our commitment to the international community as they set 7.2 per cent growth as the baseline for the developing countries," he said.  
Other elements include higher growth in agriculture, manufacturing and services sector, increased remittance flow, more ICT use, infrastructure development to reduce the discrimination between rural and urban areas, and good governance.   
With the slogan 'Accelerating growth, empowering every citizen', the government will emphasise pluralistic democracy, separate budget for disadvantaged areas and more manpower export from these areas by the government to boost remittance flow to there, said Mr Alam.
"The 7th FYP emphasised containing corruption as poverty will exist as long as corruption is there. Even if there is small-scale corruption, there will be small-scale poverty," the government planner told his audience. He noted that Bangladesh is supposed to enjoy demographic dividend from 2012 until 2035.  
In the 7th FYP as many as 18.7 million additional employments are projected to be created during the tenure while 12.5 million new entrants in the labour force will be there.
Mr Mostafa Kamal said the targets have been fixed in the 7th FYP and basic needs are identified.
Acknowledging the fact that the country lacks updated data on the economy and research and development (R&D) in various sectors, the minister said the planning commission is still working on 2010 figures. "I assure you that you will not have to wait five years rather these data will be updated every two years," he told the meet.
Mr Kamal noted no one is born as a corrupt rather he becomes corrupt while dealing with society. It is the failure to take necessary actions immediately against a corrupt person which is more dangerous than corruption itself.
"We cannot uproot corruption rather it can be reduced. There is perception of corruption but there is no exact research on the quantum of corruption," he added. The planning minister stressed harnessing whatever resources to deliver the benefits of economic progress in a fastest possible time to the doorstep of citizens.
"We are investing money in education and other sectors to achieve our targets," he said while citing example of the astonishing economic progress of Singapore in 50 years' time span.
Hossain Zillur said the notion of poverty changed after the 80s as the concept of extreme poor emerged. Now it is time to revisit the notion of extreme poverty as the definition has been in discussion for 25 years and the nature has been changing day by day.
"Conceptual clarity is required regarding the sub-group of extreme poor. Risk and vulnerability are the additional dimensions of extreme poor," he said.
He added social stigma, disappearing occupation, vulnerable land rights and urban poverty as some other features in last-mile difficulty in addressing extreme poverty. World Bank (WB) Dhaka office lead economist Zahid Hussain cited Dhaka Consensus on the Macroeconomics of Poverty Reduction to address poverty.
 The macroeconomic factors include GDP growth, emphasis on equal distribution of wealth and opportunities, strengthening equity to boost up growth, composition of growth, macroeconomic stability and structural policy and governance.     
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