Bangladesh has been on the right track in terms of economic development, though it has faced some obstacles, mainly confrontational politics, experts said on the eve of the 45th Victory Day. A former adviser to the caretaker government, Dr AMB Mirza Azizul Islam, said Bangladesh has shown notable success in achieving GDP growth over the last two decades. He pointed out that Bangladesh has reduced poverty from 74 per cent in 1971 to 22 per cent in 2016. Dr Mirza Azizul also pointed out that Bangladesh has achieved food security despite arable land reduction by an average 1 per cent per year, which is a remarkable development. About export earnings, Dr Mirza Azizul said Bangladesh has shown dramatic achievement in export earnings, which reached USD 34.5 billion in the last fiscal year.
Over the last 45 years, Bangladesh has puzzled development thinkers with its rapid economic improvement. “Bangladesh has dysfunctional politics and a stunted private sector. Yet, it has been surprisingly good at improving the lives of its poor,” the ‘The Economist’ wrote earlier. At a public lecture in Dhaka in February 2015, Nobel laureate Prof. Amartya Sen remarked that Bangladesh has performed better than India in terms of the economic and social development of women despite the latter’s faster economic growth. He said in 1990, per capita GDP of India was 50 per cent higher than Bangladesh. Now, it is 100 per cent.
The GDP in Bangladesh grew by 7.1 per cent in 2016 from the previous year. The GDP growth rate averaged 5.72 per cent from 1994 until 2016, reaching an all-time high of 7.05 per cent in 2016 and a record low of 4.08 per cent in 1994. Bangladesh has consistently been attaining over 6 per cent GDP growth for the last couple of years. It reached 6.55 per cent in FY15, up from 6.06 per cent in FY14, 6.01 per cent in FY13, and 6.52 per cent in FY12.
‘The Economist’ wrote about Bangladesh: “Economic growth since the 1970s has been poor; the country’s politics have been unremittingly wretched. Yet over the past 20 years, Bangladesh has made some of the biggest gains in the basic condition of people’s lives ever seen anywhere. Between 1990 and 2010 life expectancy rose by 10 years, from 59 to 69. Bangladeshis now have a life expectancy four years longer than Indians, despite the Indians being, on average, twice as rich. Even more remarkably, the improvement in life expectancy has been as great among the poor as the rich.”
According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, life expectancy in Bangladesh has reached 70.5 in 2016. The General Economic Division of the Planning Commission has prepared a report to be used by the Bangladesh delegation led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the 70th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York from September 15 to 30.
According to the summary, Bangladesh has made remarkable progress in the areas of poverty alleviation, food security, primary school enrolment, gender parity in primary and secondary level education, lowering of infant and under-five mortality rate and maternal mortality rate, improving immunisation coverage, and reducing the incidence of communicable diseases.
The report said Bangladesh has made commendable progress in eradicating poverty and hunger. It has sustained a GDP growth rate of 6-plus per cent in recent years, which has played a positive role in eradicating poverty. The robust growth has been accompanied by corresponding improvements in several social indicators, such as increased life expectancy (70.4 in 2013) and lower fertility rate (2.3 in 2014) despite having one of the world’s highest population densities.
However, unemployment, as well as underemployment, remains a curse for the young people in the country. The absolute number of poor people under the upper poverty line is 39.2 million and under the lower poverty line is 20.4 million.
About gender equality and the empowerment of women, the report said Bangladesh has already achieved the targets of gender parity in primary and secondary education at the national level. In 2015, Bangladesh was awarded the prestigious Women in Parliament Global Forum award for its outstanding success in closing the gender gap in the political sphere. Bangladesh ranks 10th out of 142 countries in this regard.
Bangladesh is on track to meet the target that is measured on three different parameters, such as under-five mortality rate, infant mortality rate, and immunisation against measles. The under-five mortality rate was 151 per 1,000 live births in 1990, which came down to 41 per 1,000 live births in 2013, and hence, achieved the MDG target before the stipulated time. Likewise, the infant mortality rate was 94 per 1,000 live births in 1990, which was reduced to 32 per 1,000 live births in 2013. It is on the verge of achieving the target of 31 by 2015. According to the Bangladesh Maternal Mortality Survey, the maternal mortality ratio has declined from 574 per 100,000 live births in 1990 to 170 in 2013, showing a 70 per cent decline in the last 23 years. According to the National AIDS/STD Programmes, the condom use rate was 43 per cent in 2013. The proportion of the population aged 15 to 24 years with comprehensive correct knowledge of HIV/AIDS was 17.70 per cent in 2013.