High population, politics pique country's growth

Professor Jeffrey D Sachs of Columbia University has said Bangladesh needs to interconnect private sector development, investment in human capital, environment management and scientific advancement to achieve the millennium goals.

The country should explore "new competitive areas, including energy" and scale down dependence on readymade garment export, the world-renowned economist told a roundtable in the city yesterday.

The roundtable on "Achieving the Millennium Development Goals for Bangladesh", organised by the Bangladesh Unnayan Parishad (BUP), was held at the Jatiya Press Club. BUP Chairman Dr Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad presided over the roundtable.

In his keynote speech, Sachs identified rapid population growth, unplanned urbanisation and 'political situation' as contributing to the country's economic fragility.

The special advisor to the UN secretary-general on millennium development goals and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University praised Bangladesh's success in economic growth, primary healthcare and education.

The country should think in terms of a multi-based growth plan, he said.

"RMG is an example of how to create jobs but it is not enough to sustain growth.

"Bangladesh has set good targets for development, but has little money to achieve those. What is missing is donors' money. They promise partnership in development, but do not fulfil the pledges."

He regretted that donor assistance in the development of Bangladesh's human capital was poor. The assistance should increase at least by five times to help the country achieve millennium goals in health and education sectors.

The level of public investment in human capital growth in Bangladesh is too low to achieve the millennium goals, Sachs said. "It is only six dollars annually while it is $2,000 in developed countries. It should be $35 to $40 as per the World Health Organisation's minimum standard."

He identified poor performance on the part of donors, not the government, in setting big targets from small spending, especially in the health sector.

Development of energy is another strategic goal for the country and there is no sense in keeping energy under the ground for more than 20 years, the economist said. "What is important is to do things transparently. Use it and develop it - it is very important to generate power and boost export."

He also forecast that arsenic could emerge as a big problem in near future. "Around 130 million people don't have safe drinking water. This is not a small problem and it is continuing for 15 years."

He said Bangladesh needs to take up a very realistic strategy, with sufficient assistance from donors, to achieve the millennium goals that include halving poverty and hunger by 2015.

"But setting goals alone doesn't produce results," he said, recalling previous records of failures in achieving health and education for all by 2000, and calling for a different approach this time.

Stressing the need for science and technology development, Sachs said even a poor country needs a science and technology development policy. Science and technology development is needed for the country to substantially raise per capita income.

"Unplanned urbanisation is probably the biggest challenge for Bangladesh," he observed adding that zoning and medium-size cities should be a high priority here.

Bangladesh has to identify its own way to move forward and what the donors can do is to push things ahead, he noted hoping that the country would be able to formulate a very realistic strategy.

"South Asia is a combination of dramatic progress and worries. Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are countries in the region where a lot of progress has taken place," said Sachs.