Thursday | 16 January 2025 | Reg No- 06
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Thursday | 16 January 2025 | Epaper

Golden jubilee of independence and economic progress

Published : Monday, 29 March, 2021 at 12:00 AM  Count : 2043
Md Zillur Rahaman
Bangladesh has made a remarkable economic progress in the last 50 years. Bangladesh scored impressive success in economic and socio-economic indicators than that of most other South Asian countries. It has made a tremendous economic growth, poverty has been reduced by fifty percent, women's contribution in the economic force has been gone up remarkably, reduced the rate of birth, increased life expectancy, reduced child death rate, increased education rate, increased per capita income and size of GDP. Some of the indicators are more progressive and advanced than that of India, Pakistan and other Asian countries. Nobel laureate economist Dr Amartya Sen laudably mentioned the progress and success of Bangladesh economy in several occasions.

The size of economy of Bangladesh has increased manifold in the last 50 years; the size of economy in 1972 was Tk 48.95 billion but at present it is Tk 11.306 trillion, foreign currency reserve is US 42 billion. Per capita income was US 129 in 1972 but it was US 2064 in 2020. After three years of Independence of Bangladesh in 1975, the GDP growth rate was only 2.75 per cent but now on average it is more than 6 per cent which was 7 per cent in the fiscal year 2019-20.

UK based research institution Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) forecasted a report in December 2019 which said after 12 years in 2032, Bangladesh will be the 25th largest economy of the world, which is now 41th. Then it would be the 24th position and it will exceed the economy of Malaysia, Sweden, Switzerland, Singapore, Vietnam and South Africa. It also said after 15 years, the growth of Bangladesh economy will be more than 7 per cent; the total GDP will be Tk 29.153 trillion in 2033, which was Tk 11.306 trillion in 2019.

Washington based Heritage Foundation publishes Economic Freedom Index every year where Bangladesh scored 55.6 in 2019 index and Bangladesh position was 121th but India secured 129th, Pakistan 131th and Nepal 136th. Bangladesh position was 27th among 43 countries of Asia and Pacific regions. The Heritage Foundation states that economic freedom is the fundamental right of every human to control his or her own labour and property. In an economically free society, governments allow labour, capital, and goods to move freely, and refrain from coercion or constraint of liberty beyond the extent necessary to protect and maintain liberty itself.

If we analyse the economic parameters between 1972 and 2020 of Bangladesh, then it has been found that the poverty has been reduced drastically. Poverty rate in 1972 was 88 per cent but in 2019 was 19 per cent and the extreme poverty rate was 10 per cent at the end of June 2020. According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), number of extreme poverty in 2010 was 25.80 million but in June 2019 was 16.00 million. According to the Sustainable Development Goals Report 2020, Bangladesh was 109th among the 166 countries and 5th in South Asian countries. It also said that Bangladesh is more advanced than India, Pakistan and Afghanistan in poverty alleviation; and Bangladesh is in the right track of poverty reduction policy.

After the liberation war, due to food shortage, inflation rate was 47 per cent but now it has turned down 6 per cent only. National savings rate was 2 per cent of GDP from 1972-73 to 1979-80 but now it stands 31 per cent of GDP. Budget allocation for per person was Tk 112 for 70 million in 1972 but now it stands Tk. 20,000 per head for more than 165 million people. Dependency on foreign loan has reduced drastically and in the same time, increases the internal sources of loan sanctions. Presently we have only 15 per cent foreign loans of the GDP--while it is considered 40 per cent as standard and safety as per the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) rules.

Per capita income was only US 129 in 1972 but now it was US 2064 in 2020. Success story has been found in controlling the birth rate and presently it prevails 1.30 per cent which is 1.40 per cent average in South Asian cases and 2.1 per cent in low income countries. Life expectancy of people was 46 year in 1972 but now it expands 72.6 years whereas South Asian average is 65 years. New born baby death rate is 70 per thousand in low income countries, 52 per thousand in South Asia whereas in Bangladesh it is only 35 per thousand.

Bangladesh has already been considered to be upgraded to Developing Country from Least Developed Country (LDC) which is formally declared by the United Nations Committee for Development Policy (UN- CDP) but Bangladesh have to wait till 2026. Bangladesh, before the advent of Covid-19, was set to exit the group in 2024. In response to a recent intervention by the government of Bangladesh, the UN-CDP has agreed to extend the transition period by two more years. Bangladesh has met all the three eligibility criteria for graduation involving income per capita, human assets, and economic and environmental vulnerability.

World Bank and IMF said, 6 per cent continuous GDP growth has made momentum the rural economy and this is possible because 8.00 million expatriates send remittances regularly, 4.00 million male and female workers are running the Readymade Garments Industries and millions of farmers are cultivating agriculture land in two seasons. On the other hand, government has initiated social safety programme for  4.00 million people. Economist viewed that the women empowerment in workforce has a significant contribution in our GDP as well as our national economy. IMF said that the Microcredit programme of Grameen Bank, BRAC and such NGOs have also a good contribution in the rural economy.

In the last five decades, a lot of manufacturing industries has been established in our country. Government is very confident to complete the mega projects--Padma Bridge, Ruppur Nuclear Power Plant, Karnaphuli River Tunnel, Payra Seaports, Metrorail power plant and Elevated Express project in Dhaka city.

Government is acclaimed because of the impressive achievements in various sectors. Bangladesh is a role model of economic development and progress for many countries.
The writer is a banker and
freelance contributor


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