Removing regional disparities
Thursday, 4 February 2010
STRONG evidence is there that two metro cities -- Dhaka and Chittagong -- have emerged as the main centres of economic activity of the country. The capital Dhaka with a population of about 15 million and the port city Chittagong with a population of six million together account for 90 per cent of the nation's metro-area population and 41 per cent of the total urban population. Estimates based on HIES 2006 indicate that the average real per capita expenditures in these two cities is about 40 per cent higher than in other metro areas.
The dominant seats of major administrative and economic functions-- Dhaka and Chittagong--act as the main domestic and international trading hubs, and are also attracting large numbers of migrants from other places of the country. There is also evidence that spatial concentration in Dhaka and its surrounding areas has increased in recent years.
A substantial part of the economic activities in Bangladesh is clustered around Dhaka and to a lesser extent, Chittagong. This concentration around the two biggest cities is also seen from the spatial distribution of employment by industries. Employment in the largest category of industry, agro-processing industry, is concentrated in Dhaka and to a lesser extent in Chittagong. Dhaka alone accounts for 80 per cent of the country's readymade garments (RMG) output and half of manufacturing sector employment. Complementary business services, particularly finance and real estate, account for a much higher share of total employment in Dhaka relative to the rest of the country.
Factors like remoteness from markets and towns and lack of infrastructure, like electricity and gas, are found to be important characteristics of poor areas and are strongly correlated to each other. This in turn suggests that certain areas in Bangladesh have a combination of factors likely to lead to concentration of economic activities, giving rise to the so-called growth poles. Poverty differs substantially between integrated region and less integrated region, according to HIES 2006. The poverty rate in the integrated region was 38 per cent while less integrated region was 55 per cent, a gap of 17 percentage points.
Under the circumstances, one can only suggest that improving connectivity of remote areas to growth poles, establishing interregional transport and communication systems, investment in infrastructure, bridging the information gaps to avert asymmetrical intelligence, between integrated region and less integrated region, can promote regional development to lift the poor out of the poverty trap to an appreciable degree.
Ferdous Alam,
Dhanmondi, Dhaka
The dominant seats of major administrative and economic functions-- Dhaka and Chittagong--act as the main domestic and international trading hubs, and are also attracting large numbers of migrants from other places of the country. There is also evidence that spatial concentration in Dhaka and its surrounding areas has increased in recent years.
A substantial part of the economic activities in Bangladesh is clustered around Dhaka and to a lesser extent, Chittagong. This concentration around the two biggest cities is also seen from the spatial distribution of employment by industries. Employment in the largest category of industry, agro-processing industry, is concentrated in Dhaka and to a lesser extent in Chittagong. Dhaka alone accounts for 80 per cent of the country's readymade garments (RMG) output and half of manufacturing sector employment. Complementary business services, particularly finance and real estate, account for a much higher share of total employment in Dhaka relative to the rest of the country.
Factors like remoteness from markets and towns and lack of infrastructure, like electricity and gas, are found to be important characteristics of poor areas and are strongly correlated to each other. This in turn suggests that certain areas in Bangladesh have a combination of factors likely to lead to concentration of economic activities, giving rise to the so-called growth poles. Poverty differs substantially between integrated region and less integrated region, according to HIES 2006. The poverty rate in the integrated region was 38 per cent while less integrated region was 55 per cent, a gap of 17 percentage points.
Under the circumstances, one can only suggest that improving connectivity of remote areas to growth poles, establishing interregional transport and communication systems, investment in infrastructure, bridging the information gaps to avert asymmetrical intelligence, between integrated region and less integrated region, can promote regional development to lift the poor out of the poverty trap to an appreciable degree.
Ferdous Alam,
Dhanmondi, Dhaka