Economists, researchers urge govt at a seminar
Economists and researchers on Saturday said that the government should regularly generate updated, reliable and accurate economic data for making effective policy decisions.
There is lack of consistent and updated data as well as quality research on various economic issues in the country, they said at a seminar in the capital.Terming agriculture, readymade garment and remittance sectors as the driving forces of the country’s economic growth, they laid stressed on conducting multiple researches on various aspects of these three fields.
At the seminar on reflections on the first Bangladesh Economists’ Forum: challenges facing economic research in the country, they said that government development planning would fail to bring expected outcome if that was done based on inaccurate and outdated statistics.
Bangladesh Bank and BEF jointly organised the seminar at the Bangladesh Bank Training Academy.
‘Agriculture, RMG and remittance are the three drivers of Bangladesh economic growth but these sectors appear as black boxes in terms of research and availability of data,’ Nurul Islam, first deputy chairman of Bangladesh Planning Commission, said.
The government and individual researchers should regularly conduct studies from multiple points of view on these sectors and other economic issues such as poverty, inequality and social protection so that policy makers and development planners can take proper decisions, he said.
For conducting quality research updated and reliable data is crucial, he said adding that data should be kept open for public.
‘Any research based on inconsistent and unrealistic data is nothing except waste of time and resources,’ he said adding that the government’s policy decision and development planning based on inaccurate statistics would fail to bring expected outcome.
He said that Bangladesh achieved high rate of enrolment in primary and secondary education but dropout, rate of completion and quality of education remained serious concerns.
So, there is no room for complacency in achieving high rate of enrolment.
‘Quality teachers are most important for improving quality of education but most of the qualified teachers remain engaged in teaching several universities at a time that also deteriorates the quality,’ he said.
Helal Uddin, a teacher from the economics department of Dhaka University, said that the government should promote researchers with funding for improving quality of education and research.
Planning minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said that Bangladesh had progressed much in many economic and human development areas but lagged behind in generating reliable data.
‘Though all data are not unreliable, in many cases we could not reach to the level of trust about the accuracy and authenticity of data,’ he said.
Any development plan will not work if the data is not accurate and realistic as the government sketch development plans based on data, he said.
He requested the corporate houses for spending more money on research and development and said that the government would provide tax benefits for that.
Despite tremendous success in enrolment and gender equality, overall quality of education could not reach to expected level yet, he said.
But gradually quality of education must be improved, he said.
Former finance minister M Syeduzzaman presided over the seminar.
Bangladesh Bank governor Atiur Rahman, Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies director general Mustafa K Mujeri, Bangladesh Economic Association former president Mohiuddin Alamgir, Policy Research Institute vice-chairman Sadiq Ahmed attended the seminar, among others.
-With New Age input
