The Asian Development Bank has asked the government to focus more on the services sector in bids to create additional jobs.
“Due to its labour-intensive nature, a large and growing services sector can generate millions of jobs for the country's huge workforce, and thus promote more inclusive growth,” the Manila-based bank said in its latest quarterly economic update.
Employment elasticity—which measures how employment varies with economic output—is the highest at 0.85 in the services sector followed by 0.78 in manufacturing and 0.5 in agriculture, it said.
The service sector, which accounts for 53.9 percent of value addition and 35.4 percent of total employment, is expected to play an even bigger role in the coming years.
With rapid expansion of the middle class, a natural by-product is a growing demand for education, health care, communication and financial services.
Service sector growth is expected to rise to 5.7 percent in fiscal 2014-15 mainly due to an expected rebound in industry and agriculture output, according to the study.
Transformation of the service sector requires skills and human capital development, and extensive connectivity within and outside the country.
Moreover, service sector growth in fiscal 2013-14 is expected to slip to 5.4 percent due to a loss in output for pre-election unrest and slow industry growth, according to the economic update.
Lower credit growth for trade; sluggish demand in retail and wholesale trade, hotels and restaurants, transport, and tourism; and a fall in commercial banks' operating profits are evidence of slower service sector growth, it said.
The ADB also stressed the need to tap the potential synergies in modern services.
Extensive synergies between services and industries mean that service sector development can lift productivity throughout the economy.
Those synergies are all the more evident in modern, high value-added service industries such as finance, information and communication technology, and professional business services, it added.
In light of growing tradability of services, partly a consequence of technological progress, upgrading the service industries will augment Bangladesh's gains from international trade in services, according to the review.
Economic growth is expected to slow to 5.6 percent in fiscal 2013-14, with remittances declining and export growth tapering during the remainder of the year because of fewer orders, ADB said.
GDP growth is expected to rebound to 6.2 percent in fiscal 2014-15, aided by higher remittance and export growth, as growth prospects in the US improve and the eurozone posts mild recovery.
The likely rise in consumer and investor confidence as the political situation stabilises is expected to stimulate demand and strengthen the growth momentum, according to the review.
Agriculture growth is expected to rise to 3 percent in fiscal 2013-14, aided by favourable weather conditions and a low base from the previous year. Disruptions to the distribution network during the pre-election political unrest affected marketing of agricultural products. Industry growth will slow to 8 percent in fiscal 2013-14 because of output lost to political unrest and weaker domestic demand.
In fiscal 2013-14, inflation is expected to rise to 7.5 percent, from 6.8 percent in the previous year, due to the effects of supply disruptions in the first half of the year, public and private sector wage hikes, and an expected hike in power and fuel prices.
The study also stressed the need to increase productivity in the apparel industry.
 The continued dynamism of Bangladesh's garment industry will depend on its ability to increase productivity, boost value addition and move up market, it said.