Mahbubul Islam Khan

Economy has been growing at a rate of around 6% per annum

Economy underwent remarkable structural transformation

Agriculture’s share in GDP declined to around 20% despite agriculture grew at 3% per annum during the past decade.

Significant reduction in incidence of poverty (head count ratio)

Poverty (head count ratio) fell from 56.7% in 1991-92 to 31.5% (HIES 2010)

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Bangladesh still remains a low income country with a per capita income of USD 1,044 in FY 2012-13 (almost double in India, substantially high in Pakistan)

Most (around 78%) labor force is engaged in informal low productivity and low income jobs.

Bangladesh is most vulnerable to climate change, nearly a quarter of Bangladesh is less than seven feet above the sea level.

Agriculture is susceptible to large scale natural disasters such as

floods and cyclones

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Agriculture employs almost 50% of labor force, low labor

productivity in agriculture.

Extreme scarcity of land and declining land man ratio.

Still more than 40 million people live below poverty line.

Sustainable poverty reduction calls for creation of productive

employment and income generation for the poor.

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Physical location

Linkages (raw material and labor)

Examples are Brick making, charcoal making, small bakeries, Blacksmith and metal workers

Carpentry workshops, Handicraft products (sewing, basket weaving, cloth making etc.)

Batik, tie and dye, processing (milling, jams, pickles, honey).

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Growth in agricultural production can’t absorb growing labor force

Non-farm income is important (agricultural income is insufficient, seasonality of agricultural wage employment)

Rural non-farm sector provides employment supplementation

Prevents/moderate out migration and helps control urban congestion and pollution

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Can potentially benefit disadvantaged populations, marginalized physically or socially (women, indigenous people)

Can potentially address regional differences in development

Reduce less capital and generate more employment per unit of capital

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Technological support to improve product design and

quality

Facilitating access to markets (local, national and export

markets)

Rural infrastructure development

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Economy-wide macro-economic policy (e.g. allocation of budgetary resources, domestic terms of trade between agriculture and non-agriculture)

Sectoral policies, projects and programs (e.g. reform of banking regulations, reform of collateral regulations that impair the ability of small firms to access institutional loans), business cluster development

Making the playing field equal for small rural and large urban enterprises

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All institutional actors (public and private) need to work in harmony rather than in isolation

Subcontracting between urban and rural enterprises (manufacturing or trading companies outsource to rural enterprises)

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Thank You

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