The current rate of employment generation is not at the required rate, said Bangladesh Bank Governor Fazle Kabir yesterday.

Many say that the current GDP growth is not accompanied by job creation, which is surprising and untrue, he added.

He, however, said the job growth was not that high when compared to that of the population.

The industrial sector's contribution to the GDP is 34 percent which reflects that there is employment, he said, emphasising the need for more.

Kabir was addressing a reception accorded by Bangladesh Economic Association (BEA) to Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad at the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh on the latter receiving Swadhinata Padak-2019.

Ahmad, an economist, development thinker and activist, is among 11 noted

personalities and one institution receiving the award for remarkable contributions in public and social welfare at the national level.

Heis currently the chairman of the Dhaka School of Economics (DScE) and Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF), one of the largest rural development funding, skill development and management support agencies in Bangladesh.

The country's most prestigious civilian award will make him more active in social service, said Ahmad, adding that he would relentlessly work for the poor to alleviate poverty, something he has been doing all his life.

Speaking as the event's chair, Prof Abul Barakat said Ahmad was an organic intellectual and an institute in his own way, not belonging to any certain economic school like other economists.

Ahmad's centre of work is people, especially the deprived and poor people, he added.