Focus more on manufacturing to create jobs: analysts
The government should focus more on the manufacturing sector in order to create more jobs and reduce poverty faster, analysts said yesterday.
Bangladesh's economy is dominated by the services sector, which accounted for more than 56 percent of the gross domestic product in the last fiscal year, followed by the industrial sector 30.17 percent and the agriculture sector 13.82 percent.
The manufacturing sector should dominate the economy in order to create jobs and cut poverty, said Bangladesh Bank Governor Fazle Kabir.
“Now, we are going for a double-digit GDP growth rate and a manufacturing-dominated economy where job creation will get a boost.”
The governor said Bangladesh is working hard for poverty alleviation, so the budget size is increasing every year. Within a very short time, the budget size has doubled, he said.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith said poverty has reduced in the last 10 years but still the country has 3.5 crore poor people.
“So, we should target to reduce the poverty rate by 2 percent every year.”
Their comments came at a seminar on “The economic development of Bangladesh: achievements and potentialities”. Notre Dame University Bangladesh organised the programme at its auditorium in Dhaka. Muhith said the government has only one target from the very beginning and that is poverty reduction. “It will continue in the coming years as well if we come to power again.” He said the simple way to reduce the number of poor people is to increase the effective demand in the economy.
Effective demand refers to the willingness and ability of consumers to purchase goods at different prices. “To increase the effective demand, we should target 20 lakh people who are entering the job market every year. If we can give jobs to them, the effective demand will increase,” said the finance minister.
The increase in effective demand will boost the demand for diversified goods and services, said Muhith.
Md Azizur Rahman, chairman of the economics department of the university, said if the labour market at home and abroad can create jobs for the 20 lakh people, the GDP will grow at a higher rate and poverty alleviation will accelerate.
“We are passing through a period of demographic dividend, so it is the best time to use the young people effectively,” he said.
Bangladesh has had a majority of its population within the economically active group in the last two decades and it will continue up to 2040, said Rahman.
Md Aynul Islam, chairman of the economics department of Jagannath University; Md Zahirul Islam Sikder, principal of Dhaka City International College; Muhammad Mahboob Ali, a professor of Dhaka School of Economics, and Father James Clement Cruze, chairman of the board of trustee of Notre Dame University, were also present.
