As most labourers of the country are poor as per United Nations definition, they said the goal of PRSP will remain unfulfilled if the wages of the labourers are not re-fixed, they said.

They were speaking at the roundtable titled " MDG-PRSP and Minimum Wage Standard for Workers", organised by Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies (BILS) at National Press Club.

According to the definition of United Nations, people with below US $ 1 daily income are considered extreme poor. The poor people are required to earn US $ 2 a day to come out of poverty line.

The UN-framed Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) aim to halve the number of the world's poor people with daily income of US$ 1 by 2015. Bangladesh is one of the signatories to MDGs.

Bangladesh has adopted its PRSP in line with the MDGs with focus on eight specific areas.

The keynote paper at the roundtable said Labour and Employment Ministry in 2001 fixed minimum wage at Tk 1,200 for labourers in small industries, Tk 1,250 for medium industries and Tk 1,350 for heavy industries.

"The present wage structure is inadequate. So, the government needs to increase the wage if it really wants to implement the PRSP, Ashraf Hossain, acting chairman of BILS and Whip of the Jatiya Sangsad, said.

Kazi Mesbah Uddin Ahmed, member of Planning Commission, Iqbal Ahmed, chairman of IBA, Dhaka University and member of National Minimum Wage Board, Aminur Rashid Babul of SUPRO, and Sayeed Ahmed, senior research associate of CPD, also participated in the roundtable.