Minimising income inequality
There is no denying that Bangladesh has achieved remarkable economic progress. It has begun its graduation process from the Least Developed Country (LDC) group and is set to become a middle-income economy by 2021. The main heroes of this tremendous feat are the expatriate workers, workers of the RMG sector, farmers and thriving entrepreneurs. Despite this success, there is a persistent rise in income inequality and unequal distribution of wealth among different groups of income earners. According to the Gini coefficient, an indicator of the disparity of wealth and income, our scores are 0.74 and 0.48 respectively, which is quite worrisome.
Excessive corruption, lack of job opportunities and development projects in the rural areas are some of the contributors to this rampant inequality. So a graduation from the LDC group would be meaningless if the benefits of growth do not trickle down to the people of the middle and bottom tiers of the economic pyramid.
The government should spend more on social welfare projects and education in order to reduce inequality. Strong and inclusive growth should be promoted through the redistribution of wealth and income, fruitful investments and proper implementation of fiscal and monetary policies. Finally, all forms of corruption in the administration should be eliminated.
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