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Sources of Economic Growth in Bangladesh

(1972-1990) By Dr. Mansurul A. Khan PUBLISHED BY: AH Development Publishing House, Dhaka, July 2014. PAGES:98; PRICE: Taka 500.
Dr. Helal Uddin Ahmed reviews a work on inter-linked sources of economic growth in Bangladesh...
Different social, economic, political, cultural, ethical and-moral factors ultimately determine the socioeconomic growth-path of a nationstate. Economic development is, therefore, a multi-dimensional process involving a multitude of economic and non-economic factors. It is an all-encompassing phenomenon involving numerous variables that comprise and transcend the economic sphere.
More specifically, economic growth can be traced to the contributions made by the 5 Ms, namely: Men, Material, Machine, Method and Money. As resources, these 5 Ms can be expressed as human resources, natural resources, productive facilities, technological inputs and financial resources.
A South Asian country belonging to the developing Third World, the backward economy of Bangladesh can be easily traced to its backward state in all the key resources, viz. natural, human, technological, productive and capital. All these inter-related variables constantly interact with each other leading to a vicious cycle of backwardness and underdevelopment. In this groundbreaking book titled 'Sources of Economic Growth in Bangladesh: 1972-1990', eminent economist Dr. Mansurul A. Khan examined theinter-linked sources of economic growth in Bangladesh based on a rigorous economic analysis.
A trend-setter in the genre of books on Bangladesh economy, Dr. Khan examined various possible modes of influencing economic growth and their probable contributions to this growth in the book. Some specific elements, such as the
size of the labour force, the length of the work-week, the amount of capital and the spread of education were considered for ascertaining and comparing the sources of economic growth in Bangladesh. Data provided by the author suggest that the employed labour force in Bangladesh has been shifting from an agriculture-base towards a greatermix of agriculture, manufacturing, financial, transportation and commercial enterprises. The quality of the labour force is also improving here. Bangladesh is educating more of its youths for longer periods of time. However, the data suggest that the expansion of education may be occurring faster than the ability of the labour market to absorb more highly skilled workers, thereby creating downward pressure on the wages of skilled labour relative to unskilled labour, although overall unemployment rate is low and non-manual labour is rewarded at much higher rates than manual labour.
Growth in clerical work and in the professions has added positively to the country's GDP growth. The author showed that the spread of education was strongly correlated to increases in capital stock and GDP. The data suggested that improvement in the quality of labour force in Bangladesh was closely linked to economic advances. In addition, expansion of education has also been shown to be correlated to gains in the GDP.
Dr. Khan passed away recently in New York City. This book on the sources of economic growth in Bangladesh will remain as his valedictory contribution to the pursuit of education and research in the country.
The writer is a senior civil servant and former editor of Bangladesh Quarterly. Email: hahmedl960@gmail.com