Resource information
In Bangladesh, growth needs to
accelerate to absorb the burgeoning labor force and continue
making dents in poverty. Such acceleration will require
sustained growth in exports and remittances. It will also
need an increase in investment both public and private.
However, growth acceleration alone will not be enough to
absorb the labor force. This will need an improvement in
employment intensity of growth, and a further improvement in
inclusiveness of service delivery. Moreover, to help ensure
that growth acceleration is sustained, the ex-ante and
ex-post effects of climate change will need to be addressed.
Finally, urbanization offers opportunities to accelerate
growth, but can also undermine it if not proactively
managed. Bangladesh's Gross National Income (GNI) per
capita more than tripled in the past two-and-a-half decades,
from an average of US$251 in the 1980s to US$784 by 2011.
This growth was accompanied by impressive progress in human
development. Yet, after 40 years of independence, Bangladesh
remains a low-income country with nearly 50 million people
still impoverished and its economic growth potential
under-exploited. It is therefore important to understand the
drivers underpinning Bangladesh's growth process, what
enabled the drivers to move Bangladesh forward, what its
prospects are for graduating to middle-income country status
by 2021, as envisaged in its sixth five-year plan, and what
it would take to accelerate growth sufficiently to achieve
this objective.
