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Fast industrialisation advocated

Unemployment rising, says PPRC seminar

Star Business Report
A seminar has advocated accelerated industrialisation, not agriculture, for Bangladesh's economic development.
The pace of industrialisation should be expedited so that the country becomes a mid-income one, said AB Mirza Azizul Islam, a former finance adviser to caretaker government.
"We have to increase investment in the public sector like infrastructure and power, expedite implementation of the projects under the public-private partnership (PPP) and resolve the energy crisis, for the economic growth," Islam told the seminar where economists, businessmen, trade body leaders, government high-ups and experts participated to share their experiences.
Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC) organised the seminar on 'Resilience amidst uncertainty: Poverty and growth perspectives' at Sonargaon Hotel.
Islam also suggested export market diversification and human resources development.
The former adviser pointed to the
Tk30,000 crore idle, which manifests a lack of fresh investments.
Mahabub Hossain, executive director of Brae, a nongovernmental organisation, said a higher lending rate leads to a halt to micro-finance expansion over the last one year.
"We should exploit the potentiality of the foreign markets through acceleration of industrialisation," Hossain said.
Annisul Huq, president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry, said still agriculture is the major sector, but investment in industrial sector is required.
"We have to have investment in industries as the rate of unemployment marks a rapid rise," he said.
"We're not too much afraid of hartal as we have experienced it earlier. We're not afraid of global financial crisis, we need energy, infrastructure, industrial land and foreign direct investment," Huq said.
While presenting the findings of a World Bank-funded study on 'global recession, growth realities and middle income aspiration', Hossain Zillur Rahman, executive chairman of PPRC, said Bangladesh has weathered the first round of the recession fallout quite well.
However, the longer-run growth scenario presents major challenges, he added.
"Looking at the situation now, two broad developments deserve our priority. One is the investment outlook, which is critical to the quality and magnitude of the growth process. The other immediate concern is an inflationary pressure," he said.
On the resilience from the global financial meltdown, Rahman said the country maintained a steady average economic growth rate at five percent during 2007-10, robust agricultural production, which marked rice output of 27.3 million tonnes in 2007,30 million tonnes in 2008 and 32.2 million tonnes in 2009.
Moreover, fiscal deficit was only 3.7 percent of the 2009 GDR which testifies the macro prudence and improved efficiency and performance of the banking sector, said Rahman, also a former adviser to a caretaker government.
He also pointed to the below 5 percent public investment.
Dr Salehuddin Ahmed, a former governor of the central bank, moderated the seminar.