By NNN-BSS
Dhaka : The World Bank (WB) Monday appreciated Bangladesh for its tremendous success in poverty reduction and said the achievement is one of the fastest rates in the South Asia.
The appreciation came at a workshop titled ‘Poverty Determinants, Employment Patterns, Education Trends and Regional Differences’ organized by the WB here. The workshop was dedicated to senior WB economist late Syed Nizamuddin.
Addressing the workshop, World Bank Country Director Xian Zhu said, the overall progress in reducing poverty in Bangladesh is impressive, over the period of 2000 to 2005, and the poverty rate declined from 49 to 40 percent with around six million people lifted out of poverty.
However, he said ‘there are major differences between the eastern and western parts of the country’ adding ‘Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet divisions have had the most significant reductions in poverty in contrast to Barisal, Khulna and Rajshahi divisions.’
Executive director of BRAC Mahbub Hossain, eminent economist professor Wahiddudin Mahmud and Planning Secretary Jafar Ahmed Chowdhury chaired the three sessions of the workshop.
In the first session, Xian Zhu gave the welcome speech while country’s renowned economists Debapriya Bhattacharya, Atiar Rahman, Quazi Mesbahuddin Ahmed, Hossain Zillur Rahman participated in the discussion, among others.
Senior economist of the WB Hassan Zaman presented a paper on ‘Trends and Determinants of Poverty Reduction’. The paper dealt with the data of Household Income and Expenditure Surveys (HIES) conducted by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) from 1990 to 2005.
Zaman said, according to the World Bank and Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) joint compilation, the proportion of people in Bangladesh living in poverty, has fallen sharply in the last five years.
The decline in poverty by around two percent a year was higher that what was seen in other countries in South Asia during the same period, he said.
The period of 1991-92 to 1995-96 has witnessed the most rapid decline in urban poverty, while the largest decline in rural poverty occurred during 2000-2005, Zaman said.
He also said, the study indicates that poverty level differences between regions or divisions, rather than those between urban and rural areas, have increased from 2000 to 2005.
In 2005, the poverty head count is 32 percent in Dhaka and 34 percent in Chittagong and Sylhet while it is over 50 percent in Barisal and Rajshahi divisions.
However, Dr Debapriya said, though the pace of poverty reduction is increasing in the country due to the GDP growth, the gap between rich and poor are not reducing.
For reducing the gap, the wage for the poor community needs to be increased as well as government expenditure for the people, living at the below of poverty line to be intensified.
Deferring to the WB’s comments on east-west division, Hossain Zillur said, the reasons of the poverty proneness in some of the area in eastern part of the county should be determined first before making such comments.
‘We can say there are some disadvantaged areas in the country due to scarcity of food, seasonal natural calamities and fall of industries rather saying regional differences’ he said.
Zillur said the trend of economic growth should be pro-poor and for that new interventions need to be taken for increasing the household income.