Bangladesh makes remarkable progress in 5 decades: WB report

Bangladesh has made remarkable economic and development progress in the past five decades and now the country needs a strong reform agenda to sustain its growth trajectory and further accelerate the growth rate in the long term, says a new World Bank report.

“The Country Economic Memorandum – Change of Fabric identifies” formally launched at a city hotel on Thursday identified key barriers to higher growth and proposed actionable reforms to maintain rapid growth.

The report urged strong policy reforms in three areas critical to sustain growth: stem the erosion of trade competitiveness, address vulnerabilities in the financial sector, and ensure orderly urbanization process.

Planning Minister MA Mannan spoke at the report launching ceremony as the chief guest while executive director of SANEM Prof Dr Selim Raihan and founder of SBK Tech Ventures and SBK Foundation Sonia Bashir Kabir spoke as panel discussants.

World Bank acting country director Dandan Chen gave the opening remarks while Hoon S Soh, practice manager, macroeconomics, trade, investment and public sector, South Asia, World Bank gave the closing remarks.

Nora Dihel, senior economist and Zahid Hussain, lead economist consultant, World Bank made a power-point presentation on the findings of the report.

Yutaka Yoshino, lead country economist for Bangladesh, moderated the programme.

Inputs taken from BSS