DHAKA: Bangladesh governments should ensure the access of poor people to productive assets and make equal opportunities for income to achieve 7% GDP growth, said an eminent economist.
“Governments should have target to bring qualitative changes in the life of lower segment of population by 2021 for a sustainable growth,” economist Rehman Sobhan, chairman of Centre for Policy Dialogue, told the closing session of a two-day conference titled “Towards Sustained Eradication of Extreme Poverty in Bangladesh” in Dhaka yesterday.
“The finance minister should be able to deconstruct the sources of growth, not just sectors as recognised by economists but specific categories of people and income levels that how are they contributing to the growth process.”
Sobhan said the government should not prioritise only the members of the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) and the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), but also recognise the small enterprises, farmers and microenterprises. “They all are actually contributing to growth.”
The conference was jointly organised by Bangladesh Bank and Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) at the NEC conference room of the Planning Commission.
Mashiur Rahman, Economic Affairs Adviser to the Prime Minister attended the conference as chief guest while Atiur Rahman, Bangladesh Bank governor, was special guest.
The economists proposed a strategy to achieve zero extreme poverty – the extreme poverty eradication should be prioritised in the next five-year plan of the government.
They also proposed greater budget allocation for poverty eradication using the national social security strategy and social protection programmes.
Bangladesh Bank forecasts that poverty rate will come down to single digit by 2028, said Atiur Rahman.
He emphasised on expansion of CSR (corporate social responsibility) activities to reduce the poverty gap.
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