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BB chief stresses level-playing field for financial institutions

Atiur Rahman speaks at a seminar organised by IL0

Star Business Desk
It is necessary to take steps to maintain a level playing field among different types of public and private financial institutions, Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman said on Wednesday.
Such moves are required so that the regulatory and governance requirements are applied fairly to all of them, Rahman said.
"We are moving toward greater financial inclusion as a way of supporting growth with equity in Bangladesh," he said. “This complements the existing work of microcredit organisations, especially large successful ones like Grameen Bank, BRAC and ASA."
These organisations have contributed tremendously to financial inclusion, female empowerment and poverty reduction in addition to significant spurt in self-employment and also some large employment, he said.
He spoke at a seminar on “Bangladesh: Job centred development strategies” organised by the International Labour Organisation at Ruposhi Bangla Hotel in the capital.
Bangladesh needs to cash in on its demographic dividend as the country's ratio of working age population to the total population is steadily rising due to the impressive progress it made in fertilityreduction, he said.
"This means our dependency ratio is falling and there are more people who can contribute productively to growth and society at large,” Rahman said.
However, as the example of Sri Lanka, and many other countries outside the region, clearly illustrates, that demographic dividend does not last for ever, Rahman said.
"We must use this next 10 years to create higher productivity jobs, interme-
diate the savings that this working population has to invest in our country's infrastructure and institutions."
The next 10 years is also the best opportunity to drastically cut poverty' in Bangladesh, he said.
Macro-stability is needed in the country to create jobs, Rahman said. "At the moment all our macro-economic indices are stable and some are improving."
The government decided to invest in power plants that would quickly address the power shortage but which required higher oil imports, the central bank chief said.
"As a result the taka began a natural and expected depreciation against the dollar, also prompted by the depreciation of the Indian rupee."
Relatively low wages have given Bangladesh a competitive edge in garments but that this low cost advantage may not be enough, to compete globally in the medium run, he said.
Building skills strategically is required to move upmarket in garments and in other industries, including shipbuilding, pharmaceuticals, jute and leather products, he said.
"But more fundamentally, we need to recognise that the services sector now contributes about 50 percent to GDP. So, the question remains how we can move to higher productivity' service sector based job creation.
“There are a number of business process outsourcing firms which have come to us recently and we welcome them as this could be a key source of employment for the larger numbers of educated youths coming out of our educational system."
The BB has also relaxed the regulatory framework related to foreign exchange transactions to promote outsourcing business at the individual level, he said.