Perspective Plan

This booklet on Bangladesh's MDGs achievements and the process of formulation of Post2015 Development Agenda was prepared with the aim to be used by Bangladesh Delegation led by Hon'ble Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the 70th UNGA to be held from 15-30 September 2015 in New York, USA.

The inputs for the SDGs’ targets as per 7th Five Year Plan were compiled and analysed to prepare the Handbook by a team led by Mr. Mohd. Monirul Islam, Deputy Chief, GED; other members of the team were Mr. Md. Mahbubul Alam Siddiquee, SAC; Ms. Kohinoor Akter, AC; Syed Ali Bin Hassan, AC; Mr. Shimul Sen, AC; and Ms. Josefa Yesmin, AC of GED. The team had taken the ‘Allocation of Business’ in account to identify the respective Lead and Co-Lead Ministries/Divisions for each of the 169 Targets of SDGs.

Bangladesh has made remarkable progress in terms of institutionalising the SDGs implementation mechanism and developing the integrated policy framework for Agenda 2030. For achieving Vision 2041 and emerging as a high income country by 2041, the country is currently preparing the Perspective Plan 2021-2041 and the 8th Five Year Plan (2021-2025) that aim to ‘leave no one behind’ (LNOB) and promote equitable and inclusive growth and development

The government of Bangladesh endorses the notion of citizens’ empowerment as the creation of economic opportunity, the ability to freely choose one’s own path of profession in life in accordance with one’s distinctive talents and abilities.

A format for Data Gap Analysis was primarily developed at the Poverty Analysis and Monitoring (PA&M) Wing of General Economics Division (GED) following the format of Mapping of Ministries/Divisions by Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets and indicators.

Private Sector Engagement in attaining Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Bangladesh: Bonding & Beyond” was the third in the series of private sector consultations on SDGs organized by the General Economics Division (GED), Bangladesh Planning Commission, Ministry of Planning. The consultation was organized in cooperation with the Engaging with Institutions (EI) IP project of UNDP Bangladesh.

This booklet on the output based activities undertaken and achievements made so far on en route to implementation and attainment of the SDGs in Bangladesh.

In the last decade, Bangladesh has greatly been benefitted from the visionary and dynamic leadership of the Hon’ble Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the way she adopted people-centred approach for the country’s development agenda. As a result, Bangladesh has achieved the highest cumulative GDP growth globally in the last ten years and made remarkable progress in various social and economic spheres and is now being recognized as the ‘development surprise’ or ‘role model of development’. The continuity in office through people’s mandate since 2009 has helped to undertake many initiatives, which resulted in building a happy, prosperous democratic country based on equality and justice.

Bangladesh, as part of her commitment to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), decided to take part in the Voluntary National Review (VNR) at the UN High Level Political Forum (HLPF). We have an inspiring story to tell. We have earned many international accolades for our achievements in Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

This booklet is prepared providing a broad picture scenario on the assessment of progress made under each goal in implementation of SDGs in Bangladesh. Bangladesh has already met some of the targets set for 2020 that is noteworthy, while some indicators are on track towards meeting the target of 2020. However, there are a number of indicators those need special attention in order to move the trajectory on track. This booklet has been prepared analyzing data of 83 indicators currently available in the country. However, dearth of data has still been an emerging challenge, particularly for the indicators of SDG 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15, for monitoring the progress of attainment of SDGs in the country

The overall objectives of the study is to focus on emerging issues and challenges in Bangladesh agriculture in the context of the national objective of ensuring food security and adequate nutrition standards over the next decades.

The services sector is an integral part of the Bangladeshi economy. It provides a convenient bridge for the transformation of the rural agrarian economy to a primarily urban industrial economy. In a typical transformation path, as the agriculture sector modernizes, labor transits initially from agriculture to mainly low-skill rural and urban services. These services, mostly informal in nature, provide a cushion for labor absorption as agricultural employment shrinks. The labor thus released from agriculture eventually either retrains and gets distributed to manufacturing and modern services, or stays put in informal services. The growth of services activities and employment is primarily a function of demand. In today’s global world where labor and capital are mobile, both domestic demand and world demand matters for the expansion of the services sector.

Since its liberation after a bloody war against the Pakistani military dictatorship, Bangladesh has gone through many ups and downs but particularly since the late 1990s the country has shown great promise by pushing ahead with its development agenda vigorously. Poverty has declined rapidly and economic growth is showing an upward trend reaching between 6 and 7 percent per annum in the second decade of this century. It is realistic to expect a growth rate of 8 percent. However, technological progress and innovation, especially in the ICT sector will be crucial in achieving rapid inclusive growth.

Bangladesh has been on a transformation path with the manufacturing sector driving exports and job growth resulting in sustained robust average growth in both GDP and in per capita GDP, facilitated by some conducive policy reforms. From here on, the prospects of rapid growth with extensive job creation requires a high-performing and diversified manufacturing sector which will remain, for some time to come, the main driver of growth in Bangladesh.

The global business community now recognizes Bangladesh as a nation of dynamic first generation industrial entrepreneurs who can compete with established players in the world market – export performance of readymade garments (RMG) is the classic example. Bangladesh has become a global powerhouse in low-cost manufacturing. But profound changes are taking place in the global economy. A fast-paced technological revolution, the digital age, is under way which will eventually change the way we live, work, and interact with the global community.

The objective of this study is to determine the medium-and long-term energy needs of Bangladesh, from which sources these growing demands are expected to be met, and what should be the strategy to ensure that supply of power grows in line with the demand without becoming a constraint to growth potential of the country.

The proposed new twenty-year Perspective Plan (2021-2041) of Bangladesh envisions that the country will achieve the status of an Upper-Middle-Income country by 2031 and, more ambitiously, of a High-Income country by 2041. As befitting such high ambitions, the Plan also proposes to make Bangladesh a practically poverty-free country by the end of the plan period. It is envisioned that extreme poverty will be completely eliminated by 2031 and moderate poverty would come down to the negligible level of no more than 5 percent by 2041.

For the last few decades or so, Bangladesh has attained moderately high GDP growth with impressive progress in a number of socio-economic indicators. The country expects to graduate out of the LDC status by 2021 and aspires to reach the upper middle income status by 2030. After successful experiences of accomplishing a number of Millennium Development Goals, the country now aims at progressing towards attaining the Sustainable Development Goals, targeting towards elimination of poverty, reducing inequality and empowering the less privileged groups of people. The cornerstone of such an inclusive development strategy is a robust one of job creation through employment intensive growth which will absorb the army of additional workers that will enter the labour force due to the demographic transition of the country.

Bangladesh economy’s impressive growth performance over the past two and half decades has raised hopes about the country’s graduation from the least developed country (LDC) status and its transition towards an upper middle income country in the near future. In 1990, in the global ranking of top gross domestic product (GDP) of countries (in PPP, constant 2011 US$), Bangladesh’s position was 50th. Impressively, by 2015, Bangladesh could improve its position in this ranking to 31st. According to the PWC projection, Bangladesh should become the 28th largest economy by 2030 and 23rd largest economy by 2050.

The transport sector plays an important role in the socio-economic development of Bangladesh. Bangladesh witnessed rapid growth of transport sector since independence. The overall annual growth rate was nearly 8.2 percent for freight transport and 8.4 percent for passenger transport. Even then the transport intensity of the Bangladesh is considerably lower than that of many comparable developing countries. The relative roles of transport modes are evolving with road transport expanding at the expense of railways and inland water transport because of its inherent technical and cost advantages.