Ensuring equal benefits of growth key challenge: ICCB
Not everyone benefited equally from the country’s impressive growth due to rising inequality
A staggering 96% of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Bangladesh lost income during the Covid-19 pandemic, says a report of the International Chamber of Commerce Bangladesh (ICCB).
MSMEs in the country reported a median loss of 82% in business during the "national holidays" and customer footfall reduced by an average of 67%, it said, referring to a recent study.
"However, Bangladesh, which weathered the pandemic better than most economies in the sub-region, will continue to grow strongly as exports pick up," forecast the ICCB Executive Board Report.
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Presenting the report at the virtual annual council on Sunday, ICCB President Mahbubur Rahman said not everyone had benefited equally from Bangladesh's impressive growth and development because of rising income and wealth inequality.
The biggest challenge for Bangladesh is how the country ensures that the fruits of growth and development will reach people at the bottom of the economic pyramid, he added.
Another challenge is the heavy concentration of economic activity in big cities like Dhaka and Chattogram, resulting in a huge rural-urban divide and increased urban poverty, the ICCB report pointed out.
It cited World Bank's latest report that identified Bangladesh's longer term structural challenges to accelerate the post-Covid-19 recovery. Reform priorities include a diversification of exports beyond the RMG sector, deepening the financial sector, improving urbanization, and strengthening public governance, ICCB believes.
It finds World Bank's observations very crucial for Bangladesh to ensure sustainable development, poverty reduction and ensuring health care for all.
The recent upsurge of pandemic wave in India, which started in March 2021, has caused unprecedented and alarming infection and death in Bangladesh.
Unfortunately, vaccine producing countries are reluctant to allow production of vaccines in other countries, it regretted, mentioning the initiative of ICC Paris to impress upon the G-7 countries to make vaccines available free of cost to the poor countries of Asia and Africa.
It referred to global estimates that suggest learning losses caused by school closures would result in an average of $180 or a 2.4% decline in expected annual earnings. The present value of these future earning losses adds up to an estimated $1.25 trillion for developing Asia, equivalent to 5.4% of the region's GDP in 2020.
Among others, ICC Bangladesh Vice Presidents Rokia A. Rahman and A. K. Azad, Apex Footwear Chairman Syed Manzur Elahi, FBCCI President Md. Jashim Uddin and DCCI President Rizwan Rahman, CCCI President Mahbubul Alam, FICCI President Rupali Chowdhury, BIA President Sheikh Kabir Hossain, BGMEA President Faruque Hassan, BTMA President Mohammad Ali Khokon and BKMEA First Vice President Mohammad Hatem attended the programme.
