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Raising per capita income not enough

CPD says human development also key to bringing Bangladesh out of the LDC list

STAR BUSINESS REPORT
Star Business Report
Only an increased per capita income will not help Bangladesh come out of the list of least developed countries (LDCs), said the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) yesterday
Increased investments for human development and a reduction in economic vulnerability are also important to ensure the shift, the think tank added.
"We disagree with those who only focus on increasing per capita income for development. Increased income does not guarantee the overall development of the country," said CPD Distinguished Fellow Debapriya Bhattacharya at its office.
"The issue of development should be seen from the perspective of structural changes, not from the income perspective only," he said, giving an example of Equatorial Guinea, an African country.
The country had a per capita income of $14,540 in 2010, which is similar to those in some devel-
oped countries. But the country is still an LDC, said the economist.
"So, focusing only on attaining the status of a middle-income country does not mean that we will come out of the LDC status," he said.
Echoing Bhattacharya, CPD Executive Director Prof Mustafizur Rahman said the benchmark of the per capita income to attain the middleincome country status has been increasing over time. "Income
indicator is a moving goalpost," he said.
They spoke at a press briefing organised ahead of a three-day Dhaka meet of an expert group of 'LDC IV Monitor' -- an independent global partnership of eight think tanks and academic institutions from different countries.
The meeting on Development Challenges of the LDCs: Tracking the International Commitments will be held on September 7-9 at BRAC Centre Inn.
The CPD, a member of the partnership, will organise the event to be participated by more than 30 experts mainly from abroad.
The alliance, LDC IV Monitor, was formed in September 2011 to monitor the outcomes of the Fourth United Nations Conference on LDCs or UN LDC IV.
The LDC IV Monitor will conduct studies and hold dialogues as part of its goal to evaluate the progress of implementation of promises made in the Istanbul Programme of Action. The alliance will publish a biennial report globally based on Istanbul Programme of Action for LDCs for the decade 2011-2020. The first report is likely to come out next year.
"We have joined together because the issue of development is important. It should not be left out to the UN or governments," said Bhattacharya.
"We have to keep an eye on it so that governments and international community remain accountable."
The partnership, LDC IV Monitor, came in the backdrop of a lack of implementation of the pledges of governments and international community in the past decades for the LDCs, the number of which rose to 48 now
from 25 in 1970s.
The Istanbul Programme of Action had pledged to bring down the number of LDCs to 24.
Bhattacharya said Bangladesh is one of those countries that have the possibility to shake off their LDC status in the comingyears.
For this, the country will have to attain better scores in two out of three indices used to measure LDCs by the UN. These are: per capita income, human development and economic vulnerability, said the economist.
He said Bangladesh performed better in the economic vulnerability index in the past years. Recently, there has been a fall in its scores.
"From the other two indices, we need to prioritise which of the areas we will focus on," Bhattacharya said.
But with its population at nearly 16 crore, it will be diffi-cult for Bangladesh to increase the per capita income.
"The right strategy for Bangladesh will be to invest more in human development," said Bhattacharya, "Development of human resources will facilitate economic growth."