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What the papers say

Inclusive Growth Steady

A weekly round up of articles about employment, the labor market, skills training and workforce development. This week’s round up is drawn from The Daily Star. Here is the news for the week ending 25 January 2018.

This week in the Bangladesh English Press…

…we hear about the two-day Bangladesh Development Forum and garments trade show. We also learn about the growing income gap between the rich and the poor. On a positive note, Bangladesh is ahead of its South Asian competitors in the World Economic Forum’s Inclusive Development Index list of emerging economies. And Bangladesh is optimistic about becoming a poverty-free country by 2024.

Business, Investments, Trade and Growth

Bangladesh Garments Accessories and Packaging Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGAPMEA) organized a four-day trade show on garment accessories and packaging industries in Dhaka. This will be the ninth edition of the show, Gapexpo-2018 at Bashundhara International Convention City. Some 450 exhibitors from 24 countries including India, China, Japan, South Korea and Bangladesh participated in the fair.

Speaking at the trade show, the Finance Minister of Bangladesh is optimistic about Bangladesh becoming a poverty-free country by 2024. This is possible if the present government gets one more term to implement its ongoing development programmes.

Bangladesh ranks 34th in the World Economic Forum’s Inclusive Development Index (IDI) of emerging economies. Bangladesh is categorised favourably as slowly advancing and is ahead of most South Asian countries: India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka but behind Nepal. The index includes measures for growth, inclusion and sustainability. It suggests that  GDP is not a sufficient indicator of economic success.

You can read the full Inclusive Development Index 2018 here.

Other News

The two-day event, Bangladesh Development Forum (BDF)-2018, was organised by the Finance Ministry at Sonargaon hotel in the capital on 17 January 2018. It provided opportunities for high-level exchanges between the Government, development partners and stakeholders. Several development issues were discussed. And the government and its development partners agreed to strengthen partnerships to support Bangladesh achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and implement the Seventh Five-Year Plan.

At the end of the two-day Bangladesh Development Forum meeting, Wencai Zhang, vice president of the  Asian Development Bank (ADB), spoke at a press meet at the Dhaka office on 18 January 2018. He said that Bangladesh has great potential as it has a young population and a favourable geographic location. The country has to improve regional cooperation to enjoy the intra-regional trade opportunities across Asian countries. Bangladesh has to mobilise private investment and improve skills in the workforce to achieve its desired economic growth.

A new Oxfam report “Reward Work, Not Wealth” talks about the existing income gap between the poor and the rich in the global economy. Eighty-two percent of last year’s generated wealth went to the richest one percent, while around 4 billion people who make up the poorest half got nothing. The report was launched on 21 January 2018 just before political and business leaders gathered for the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

You can read the full Reward Work, Not Wealth here.

 And that’s the news for the week ending 25 January 2018.