Analysts emphasise manufacturing sector as job creator
Bangladesh must identify potential high-employment generating industries to lessen the burden on the readymade garment and agriculture sectors, experts said yesterday.
The observation came at a discussion, “Creating Jobs for All” as part of the International Conference on People’s Empowerment and Development, organised by the foreign ministry, at Ruposhi Bangla Hotel in Dhaka.
Speaking as a keynote presenter, Syed Manzur Elahi, who served as an adviser to a former caretaker government, said it takes the whole economy to create jobs.
“Regardless of size, the stage of development or even the nature of economy, the policymakers everywhere are looking to job creation as the vehicle for economic empowerment that would lead to social development, economic growth and political stability.”
He said that due rising aspirations Bangladesh will have to create better paying jobs for the 1.8 million-odd that enters the labour market a year.
“The majority of the new jobs can, and must, come from the manufacturing sector,” Elahi said, adding that Bangladesh’s export manufacturing sector has been a one-trick pony for too long.
He feels Bangladesh needs to now identify, launch and support new export sectors with job creation potential similar to RMG, and the fact that the global buyers are actively seeking alternatives to China-manufactured products should provide the impetus.
“Our own window of demographic opportunity may remain open for a maximum of three more decades, but the relocation window will certainly not be open for that long,” he said.
Elahi, chairman of the leading footwear exporter Apex Adelchi Footwear Ltd, said Bangladesh must invest in education and human resource development.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith echoed Elahi’s views about discovery of high employment-generating industries, particularly to draw in the abundance of labour that lie in rural sectors.
Muhith also stressed the need for skilled worker production and human resource development.
“The growing domestic market, however, should be given equal importance to the export sector,” he added.
Muhith said job creation is one of the priority sectors for the government as the country has a significant pool of unemployed people.
Mahabub Hossain, executive director of BRAC, said attention should be given to the youth.
“They should be given education and training so that the country can utilize their talents and they are well-equipped to deal with periods of unemployment.”
He said agriculture should not be completely dismissed as a generator of jobs, but suggested better linkage of rural areas to the markets for value addition of agricultural products.
“Microcredit, however, can create ample job opportunities and help entrepreneurs to do likewise.”
He urged the government to create a conducive environment such that the private sector can invest and create jobs. Jairam Ramesh, India’s minister for rural development, drinking water and sanitation, however, said the focus should also be on creating productive and green jobs.
“We have to look at manufacturing sector in a different way as the sector itself is becoming less labour-intensive due to the integration of new technology to the sector,” Ramesh added. HT Imam, an adviser to the government, chaired the session.
-With The Daily Star input
