OPPORTUNITY - Bangladesh

innovationsPromotingPro-poor GrowthDr. AtiUR RAHMANGOVERNOR, BANGLADESH BANKA nation requires a vision for its cherished development. The election manifestoof the present government ‘Vision-2021’ has been prepared with the dream ofmaking a new Bangladesh at the outset of golden jubilee celebration of ourgreat independence.Apromise of fundamentaltransformation in all spheresincluding socio-economicaland political arena has been reflectedin this vision that also covers theMillennium Development Goals(MDGs). The present governmenthas placed poverty alleviation andelimination of all sorts of inequityat the forefront of its developmentstrategy. Strengthening of social safetynets, food autarky, faster agriculturalgrowth, employment generationetc. are identified as some of the keychallenges for attaining the goals. Thisarticle focused on the initiatives takenby the present government duringlast three years for improvement ofmass people especially on povertyalleviation, social safety nets, foodsecurity and agricultural sector.Poverty AlleviationPoverty eradication, the firstcondition for development, isthe main challenge of the presentgovernment. Adam Smith in his book‘Wealth of Nations’ noted, ‘No societycan surely be flourishing and happyof which by far the greater part of thenumbers are poor and miserable’. So,undertaking of long term effectiveprograms is required. The governmenthas taken a strategy for combatingpoverty reduction both in short andlong terms. In the poverty reductionstrategy framework of the revisedNational Strategy for AcceleratedPoverty Reduction II (NSAPR II),special importance has been givenon creation of macroeconomicenvironment, identification of criticalareas and essential infrastructurefor pro-poor growth and socialprotection for the vulnerable sectionof the society and human resourcesdevelopment. During the last threeyears, the government had succeededin groundbreaking for attaining thedesired growth. In spite of inter naland external obstacles, real GDPgrowth rate was 6.7 percent in FY2010-11 which is the highest in last40 years due to the higher growth inagriculture, manufacturing and servicesector and the target for FY 2011-12 is 7.0 percent. In FY 2009-11, percapita income increased by 24 percentcompared to 19 percent in the periodFY 2002-04. Due to macroeconomicstability, domestic savings rateincreased to 19.93 percent during thelast three years against 18.77 percentin FY 2002-04. Export growth hasincreased to 47 percent during the lastthree years of the present government.On the other hand, export growthrate was 27 percent in FY 2002-04.The rate of inward remittance wasthree times higher during the lastthree years of the present governmentcompared to that of FY 2002-04.According to the primary report of‘Household Income and ExpenditureSurvey-2010’, population living belowthe poverty line decreased to 31.5percent in 2010 from 40.4 percent in2005. During this period, poverty gapreduced significantly while incomeinequality ratio decreased moderately.The government has been increasingits revenue budget to eradicatepoverty. Bangladesh has achievedsignificant progress in povertyreduction and targets of the MDGs.Achievement of the United NationsAward on reduction of child mortalityrate is undoubtedly recognition of thesuccess of the present government.Bangladesh is also in the righttrack for attaining other MDG targetsincluding eradication of extremepoverty and hunger, achievinguniversal primary education, womenempowerment etc.Social Safety NetsSince the government believesin long term development vision, itconsiders social safety net programsnot only as a tool of poverty reductionbut also as a crisis-fighting-instrument.Microfinance is one of the importantdeterminants for empowering poorpopulation so that they can surviveOpportunity Bangladesh 23