Industry's contribution to GDP must increase
There is no denying the fact that Bangladesh, ever since it achieved independence, has walked a long way in terms of development of its industrial sector.
We may refer to the fact that when the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman took the helm of the newly born country, industry accounted for only 6-7 percent of the country's GDP. And now, industry accounts for around 33 percent of its GDP. This is not any achievement we can take lightly.
In fact, we feel very proud as a nation when we think that ours is a country that once struggled to provide shrouds for its own people but now it is the second largest exporter of readymade garments in the world, whose volume of garment export is more than the combined total of that of India and Pakistan.
Many other industries including conventional and nonconventional ones are also flourishing and gradually making immense contributions to the country's export earnings and GDP.
In saying that, we must also acknowledge that the progress made so far is far from what we may feel contented with. And particularly when we are committed to promote ourselves to the category of the developed nations within a span of 23 years from now we have a lot more to do in this respect.
We know industry sector must be the most thriving among all economic sectors of a developing economy like ours. But even after that the industry sector in the country has grown hugely, as mentioned above, the economy is still mostly dependent on service sector.
The service sector's contribution to the GDP is still around 53 percent but economists opine the sector's share must be brought down to less than 50 percent while the share of industry sector must increase above 40 percent in order to ensure sustainability of economic growth.
Against this backdrop when we need more investment in industries we are observing to our consternation that the sector has been going through a phase of stagnation over the last few years, which is mainly attributable to a dearth of private investment.
That data released by Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics show industries could have employed only 3 lakh new faces at an average annual rate of a mere 42, 857 persons calls for proper attention and effective addressal by the authorities concerned.
Source: https://dailyasianage.com
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