A Fascinating Story of Socio-Economic Transformation

The pace of poverty reduction, increased export and tremendous growth is leading towards a positive economic change

Bangladesh, a country with 2.2 per cent of the world's population, has progressed to a level which has placed it in the world map as a 'Role Model' for development through extraordinary macroeconomic management of the government, tremendous efforts from the private sector to cope with competitors from around the world and resilience of the people to win over every odd starting from devastating natural calamities, ending up to the Covid – 19 pandemic. As data shows, the country’s GDP had been growing at a compound annual rate of 7.68 per cent since its independence in 1971. Once called a basket case, Bangladesh now earns a per capita GNI of $2,554. Total export of the country stood at $45. 367 billion in June 2021, which is around 1.60 times its 2013’s figure, reflecting a 5.3 per cent compound annual growth rate. Total import of the country has also seen a phenomenal compound annual growth of 7.05 per cent over the last eight years, causing 2013’s import figure to grow to 1.70 times and reach $61.571 billion.

The constantly rising trend of national income, along with policy support from the government, caused the country to develop an interesting Middle and Affluent Class Consumer (MAC) group. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina mentioned that the MAC group of the country now contains more than 30 million people. Presenting the growth potential and commendable consumer market of the country, she further added that mobile internet penetration will be 41 per cent by 2025, 48 per cent of the people will live in cities and towns by 2030, electricity consumption will drastically increase and the country will become the 26th largest economy by 2026 — echoing the projection of HSBC. Demographic dividends of the country have also become a primary force for development of Bangladesh. Around 2/3rd of the overall population of the country is aged 25 years and below. Such a young and energetic workforce is always an asset for every nation.

The visionary leadership of the Prime Minister along with tremendous efforts from the private sector has caused the nation to also experience enviable development in the socio-economic front. According to the World Bank, Bangladesh had around 40 per cent of its people living below the poverty line. This ratio has declined to around half and reached 24.3 per cent within just 11 years. Malnutrition, however, is still high in Bangladesh. Studies indicate that mother’s educational levels and family wealth have significant negative relationship with moderate and severe malnutrition for children. This raises the issue of female education. The country has had tremendous development in child and female education. 98 per cent of all the children are getting enrolled in primary schools. Gender parity has also been achieved. Around 50.9 per cent of all enrolled students were girls in 2016. This ratio, however, falls at higher levels of education.

To get a better idea about the progress of Bangladesh in the socio-economic front, a comparative analysis of the Human Development Index (HDI) data of the UNDP can be analysed. In terms of expected and mean years of schooling, the country has room to improve its performance. Of course, the country is well behind in all the components of HDI compared to the developed nations. The GNI is not included in the table since the primary focus of the comparison is non-monetary developmental issues of HDI. It shows that the advancement in terms of education is still not good despite efforts from the government and different international organisations. Steps such as— taking different projects at the post graduate colleges of the country and development of selected private colleges with the help of information technology to improve the quality of education scheme. Through schemes such as Secondary Education Sector Investment Programme (Cesip), Generation Breakthrough Project (Phase-II), and others, the government failed to fulfill its objective to impart quality, modern and effective education at every level.

The government has also adopted 'Education Policy – 2010' with the objective of building thoughtful, rational, capable future leaders, secular, tolerant and patriotic citizens. Unfortunately, however, the policy itself is flawed in many dimensions which fails to ensure that the objective is attained. For example, the policy offers a targeted student teacher ratio of 30:1, whereas the average of this ratio in the USA is around 16:1 and the same in Malaysia and Singapore are around 11 – 12:1. Practically speaking, this ratio in Bangladeshi educational institutions is much higher than what is mentioned in the policy. Therefore, the students do not get appropriate attention and quality education at schools, colleges and even in the universities. Furthermore, UN data shows that more than 90 per cent of the schools in Bangladesh do not have internet connections, depriving the students the opportunity to get free and high-quality educational materials.

The author is a qualified accountant, a doctoral candidate at the IBA, DU, an independent researcher and Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Management and Accounting (IJMA)