Bangladesh has the potential to join the ranks of middle-income countries (MICs) with a per capita GNI of 875 US dollar (4.700 DKR i indtægt pr. indbygger) by 2016, local newspaper The Financial Express reported Friday.
A World Bank report titled “Bangladesh: strategy for sustained growth” revealed Thursday to reach that level, the South Asian country needs to attain sustained GDP growth rate of 7,5 percent per annum.
The countrys per-capita GNI was recorded at 520 dollar in fiscal 2006-07.
Despite the widely acknowledged and critical weaknesses in governance, Bangladesh has an impressive record of achievement, especially in harnessing sound economic and social policies to pioneering social entrepreneurship, said the report.
World Bank Country Director Xian Zhu stressed that a rapid transition to the MIC status would demand a consistent political commitment.
Zhu said successful management of three transitions would be “a key to achievement of Bangladeshs MIC aspirations”. These are a shift from agriculture to industry and services, deepening of integration with global market, and emergence of dynamic and diverse urban centers. Zhu also underscored the creation of dynamic and diverse urban centers as essential.
Zhu said any of the emerging structural issues – critically weak governance, urban congestion and mismanagement, overburdened port, power and transportation facilities, and acute skill shortages – can easily become a binding constraint to growth.
– Any slippage in macroeconomic discipline can derail the transition by several years. Neither would the lackluster performance of agriculture be conducive to the MIC aspirations, he warned.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
