The poor, or workers are yet to benefit from the zero tariff facilities Bangladesh enjoys from developed economies with an objective of poverty reduction and development, a Dhaka seminar was told yesterday.
"We enjoy duty-free market access in the name of poverty alleviation. Are we in fact effectively passing on these benefits to the poor living on $30-40 a month, questioned Prof Rehman Sobhan, chairman of Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), a local thinktank.
"In the name of competition, we have not been able to make a second round adjustment in wages of workers,” he lamented.
The remark came at the two-day regional seminar on 'mainstreaming international trade into national development from the South Asian perspective', organised by South Asian Network on Economic Modelling (SANEM) and CUTS International at Dhaka Sheraton Hotel.
Trade liberalisation, which countries have been embracing since midnineties, takes place on the plea that removal of barriers to free trade and closer integration of economies benefit all, including the poor.
Rehman said trade liberalisation has broadened up opportunities like attraction of foreign investment but it has also become disad -vantageous for domestic industries, as many of those are exposed to global competition despite being at premature stage.
Bangladesh has not got benefit in some sectors like ready-made garments in liberalised trading regime, the noted economist pointed out.
Although earnings from the garment and textile industry have increased, social and health security issues of workers —about 20 lakh people -- have remained largely unresolved.
He blamed those owners
who travel abroad for treatment, while workers live in slums and have no social security.
The CPD chief suggested that opportunities for the workers should be created to help them take part more in the value addition process.
"Give workers the stakes in industrial units as a means to ensure a pro-poor development following trade liberalisation,” he said.
Looking at workers issues is also the responsibility of the elected government, he added.
In another seminar, 'Globalisation and the Poor: Current Affairs in South Asia, the CPD chairman said trading system should be arranged in a way that it works for poor.
Sugata Marjit, director, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata, Selim Raihan, executive director of SANEM, Vaqar Ahmed, economist, Planning Commission, Pakistan, and Shiv Raj Bhatt, trade policy analyst, Ministry of Commerce, Nepal presented papers on implications of liberalisation on poverty and income.
Speakers observed that globalisation has had a positive impact in terms of poverty reduction and income growth in some sectors.
In Bangladesh, both ready-made garments and remittance have contributed to a drop in poverty by 2.6 percentage points between 2000 and 2005, said Selim Raiham in his study.
Sobhan, however, said the range of impact varies as thousands of workers of the jute industry have lost their jobs.
"Institutional mechanism should be set up for collective investment,” he suggested.