Economic growth not backed by job scenario: UNCTAD
The country’s employment shifting from agriculture to industry and service sectors fails to ensure quality job which is a drawback to sustainable economic growth, said the Centre for Policy Dialogue on Wednesday in Dhaka while presenting the UNCTAD report 2013 on the least developed countries. The LDCs, including Bangladesh, have enjoyed more than 10 years of economic growth but such growth is not backed by employment scenario, especially for the young, said the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development report 2013 on the LDCs.
In Bangladesh the employment trend is moving from agriculture to service and industry sector but the rate is very slow, CPD research director Fahmida Khatun said while presenting the report at CPD office in the capital.
‘Although the trend shows more employment is in the service sector than industries, we need people to engage in the productive works,’ she said.
Even the service sector in Bangladesh hardly offers quality jobs, Fahmida said.
‘Banks, telecom companies maybe offering some quality jobs but the thousands of grocery shops across the country are also service sector which fails to ensure that,’ she said.
She said the government needed to pay more attention to encouraging cluster and EPZ model to develop the economy.
Fahmida said the policymakers should put more attention to the country’s investment conditions and diversity of investments.
‘Foreign direct investment is very important as it brings technology and expertise but new we need to think of alternative investment sources like charity foundations of the developed countries and regional cooperation,’ she said.
Fahmida also said the microcredit financing model was not appropriate for Bangladesh at this stage of the economy.
‘Microcredit can take things up to a certain level but it is not appropriate for enterprise development
which is important for us in order to create quality jobs,’ she said.
Fahmida said the state-owned banks could provide long-term financing to the domestic companies on more favourable terms.
‘The population in the LDCs is growing very rapidly and the jobs created are not of that much productive as the development indicators show,’ she said.
The report showed that from the years 2010 to 2050 the working age population in the LDCs would increase by an average of 15.7 million per year.
It also said from the years 1990 to 2012 around 290 million women had entered the labour force in the LDC countries but that had not translated into better jobs or less gender discriminations.
The LDC category was established in 1971 with 25 countries and by 2013 the total number of LDC countries stands at 49.
There are three indicators of the LDCs — per capita GNI with a threshold of $905, the human assets index with a threshold of 60 and the economic vulnerability index with the threshold of 38.
According to the 2013 report, Bangladesh’s per capita GNI stands at $840 in 2012 while the human assets index is 54.7 and the economic vulnerability index is 32.4.
CPD additional research director Khondaker Golam Moazzem and director Anisatul Fatema Yousuf were also present on the occasion, among others.
-With New Age input
