Experts moot budgetary support to boost formal sector job growth
Staff Reporter
The Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) experts have recommended budgetary support to create jobs in the formal sector, as recent trends show declining formal sector employment generation compared to the informal sector.
Senior visiting fellow of the Centre for Development and Employment Research (CDER), Rizwanul Islam, said, During the years between 2005 and 2010, the GDP grew at the rate of 1.8 per cent that could have generated one per cent growth in employment. But between 2010 and 2013, 2.6 per cent GDP growth was needed to produce the same outcome or result.
Experts expressed their views at a pre-budget (201718) discussion, Development and Employment: Selected Issues for Budget (2017-18), held at the BIDS, in Dhaka, on Monday.
The programme was jointly organised by the newly formed think-tank, the CDER, and BIDS.
Rizwanul Islam presented a keynote paper on Mainstreaming Employment in Development Policies and Programmes, where he addressed issues like the impact on poverty, inequality, and employment.
Rizwanul Islam said informal employment in 2013 was 87 per cent and should be reduced to 60 per cent by 2030.
Rizwanul Islam also said the slow rate of employment growth was a major reason for a high rate of unemployment among the youth.
The second keynote speaker, CDER executive chairperson Rushidan Islam Rahman, stressed the importance of an employment budget and suggested raising employment issues before the upcoming budget.
Rahman added that, according to an International Labour Organization (ILO) report, only 73 lakh people were engaged in the formal sector, while 87.4 per cent of the people were engaged in the informal sector. Rahman further noted there was no valid data on informal sector employment in Bangladesh before 2010.
He said employment in the readymade garments (RMG) sector was stagnating and the use of modern machines in large factories was dampening future employment growth prospects.
Rushidan suggested imparting good quality training to workers to increase their demand in the job market.
The discussion floor was thrown open after the seminar and some members of the panel shared their views. Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) executive director Dr Fahmida Khatun, former professor of the Department of Economics of Dhaka University, Wahiduddin Mahmud, BIDS director-general Dr KAS Murshid and others also spoke.
