Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed yesterday criticised the skepticism over the country’s becoming a middle income country by 2021 as he expressed confidence by saying Bangladesh will definitely achieve the target as envisaged by the government.
“I can say (in the name of Almighty Allah), definitely the country will be a middle income one within 2021,” he told a meeting in Dhaka. “Because all the economic indicators moving in positive direction.”
He made the remarks three days after a local think tank expressed frustration in an analysis on a recent Least Developed Countries Report 2014 of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
On Thursday last, Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD) said Bangladesh would have to wait 10 more years to graduate from the league of least developed countries, as the country still lags behind economic vulnerability and human assets index despite faring well in some socio-economic indicators.
When this government took over power in 2009, the minister said, the country’s exports were $14bn, but it doubled in last five years while foreign exchange reserve escalating four times.
He was speaking at a symposium on “Look East: Asia’s Economic Integration and Bangladesh Perspective” at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre.
Quoting reports of some international organisations, including the World Bank, Tofail said there are many positive reports on Bangladesh economy. “But a research organisation of Bangladesh thinks it will take 10 years to achieve the goals.”
He continued: “We are talking against ourselves. It’s unfortunate.”
About the millennium development goals (MDGs), Tofail said Bangladesh has already met several targets of the MDGs like reducing poverty gap, attaining gender parity and per capita income threshold.
“Some areas like economic resilience and human resource development will be attained within the time frame,” he said.
About the apprehension over losing benefits as an LDC, he said: “We’ll go for FTA (free trade agreement) like other countries doing now.”
