The government should cut the higher employment generation target set at the seventh five-year plan to be implemented since the new fiscal year, economists suggested yesterday.
Since the country’s investment remains sluggish and the structural reforms is still very poor, the higher job growth target taken at the plan is highly ambitious, they argued.
A galaxy of economists was speaking at a consultation meeting on the draft plan at the Planning Commission. The General Economic Division (GED) organised the event. GED Member Prof Shamsul Alam presented the draft at the meeting.
Under the draft plan, the GED has projected an additional 36 lakh employment generation at home and abroad in the upcoming fiscal year, which would increase by 40 lakh in the terminal year of FY2020 of the FYP.
BRAC Advisor Dr Mahbub Hossain and Prof Abdul Bayes recommended that the employment generation target is highly ambitious.
They said the government should project more realistic job creation target taking the present structural reforms and economic growth into account.
Prof Bayes suggested the GED should focus on quality economic growth so that the income inequality is not widened.
Dr Hossain has laid emphasis on the agriculture sector development along with the industrial growth of the country.
In the draft plan, the GED has cut its economic growth target drastically by some 2 percentage points to only 8% from its double-digit projection. The GED drafted the 7th Plan in a bid to take Bangladesh’s economy to a new height following its Perspective Plan 2010-2021.
Officials said the GDP growth in the next financial year (FY2016) has been trimmed to 7% in its Perspective Plan, a 1.3 percentage point down from the previous target of 8.3%.
Besides, the GDP growth has been revised to 7.2%, 7.4%, 7.6% and 8% instead of 8.7%, 9.1%, 9.4% and 9.7% in FY2017, FY2018, FY2019 and FY2020 respectively.