Contrary to the common notion, the pace of job creation in Bangladesh has slowed down despite robust economic growth, according to a new World Bank analysis.

The ‘Jobs Diagnostic’ showed the annual growth rate of employment fell to 1.8 percent in 2010-15 after growing 2.7 percent annually between 2003 and 2010. The growth, however, remained stalled in the key garment sector during the period.

But, the GDP per capita was 5.2 percent in 2010-15 while it was 4.7 percent in 2003-10 period.

Around two million workers enter the labour market each year, of which on an average 400,000 find employment abroad, according to government statistics.

Thomas Farole, the lead author of the World Bank Jobs Diagnostic, said the relationship between GDP growth and jobs growth is not “straightforward”.

“The main issue that people seem to be focusing on is that GDP has grown steadily over the past 5-10 years. And job growth was also fairly steady through 2010,” he told bdnews24.com.

“But more recently jobs growth has slowed down, even though GDP growth has actually increased a bit. Why is this happening? There is no simple answer,” he said, on the sidelines of a workshop on Monday where the report was presented.

The World Bank and the ILO jointly organised the workshop. A panel discussion was also followed by the launching of the analysis.

Farole said that “part of the answer is that productivity has increased which is by definition is we have more output without more workers then these workers are more productive."

"This is actually good news because higher productivity should lead to more competitiveness of Bangladeshi firms, which should lead to higher wages and more investment."

“But at the moment, that investment is perhaps slowing down… and here government can help change things and get investment and job creation back on track by addressing many of the things discussed by the panel”.

Those are investing in improving skills of workers, improving business regulations to support the growth of firms and attract FDI, trade, tax, and competition policies that support diversification of the manufacturing sector, infrastructure to improve the competitiveness of cities, among others.

Farole said jobs slowdown in the export-oriented RMG sector underscores the need for continued structural shifts in the economy.

The World Bank team used the labour force surveys, economic census and survey on manufacturing industries of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics for their analysis.

They suggested Bangladesh proactively address the challenge - starting with the development of a National Jobs Strategy to increase the pace of formal job creation, raise the quality of jobs, and connect vulnerable workers to jobs.

The report also highlights the importance of looking into the job-related issues holistically.

“Addressing the job issues requires policies that establish the macro and microeconomic frameworks to stimulate private sector investment, promote education and skills development, and support innovation, urbanisation and mobility,” said Rajashree Paralkar, Acting Country Director for Bangladesh of the World Bank.

“We look forward to the development of a National Jobs Strategy - a comprehensive set of coordinated policy actions that are targeted explicitly toward addressing the jobs priorities.”

ILO country director Srinivas Reddy said the goal number-8 of the SDGs has three components which are inclusive economic growth, productive employment and decent work.

The report also highlighted that Bangladesh needs to generate quality jobs and address gender disparities.

Only 1 in 5 workers are employed as wage- worker which means they earn a regular wage which is 'a set amount paid at a set time' - weekly, monthly.

Further, 1 in 3 working women, as opposed to 5 percent of working men, are engaged in unpaid work.

International migration has been a way for many Bangladeshis to seek better-paying jobs in spite of costs and risks to worker safety, according to the report.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith in his budget speech on June 1 outlined targets and strategies for generating employment in the proposed budget for fiscal 2017-18.

He pointed out the structure of Bangladesh’s economy saying it was undergoing 'robust changes' and the share of industry and service sectors in GDP is gradually rising.

A programme titled 'Executive Development Programme’ or EDP has been introduced to meet the skill deficit at the mid and upper levels of management in the industry sector, he had said.

Indian federal authorities launched a fraud investigation on Monday into the founders of news channel NDTV, a move the company said was an attempt to muzzle free speech.

Two top officials said the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had brought a case against NDTV founders, Prannoy and Radhika Roy, over a multi-million-dollar loan, and police raided the couple's New Delhi home as well as two holiday houses.

The company refuted allegations that the bank loan was unpaid and accused the CBI of "concerted harassment of NDTV and its promoters based on the same old endless false accusations".

"NDTV and its promoters will fight tirelessly against this witch-hunt by multiple agencies. We will not succumb to these attempts to blatantly undermine democracy and free speech in India," an NDTV statement said.

The investigation comes at a time of polarising debate in India's fiercely competitive TV news industry, where channels sometimes test the boundaries of responsible journalism and prime-time talk shows often turn rowdy.

Neither of the Roys were available for comment but NDTV presenter Sreenivasan Jain said the "message is clear".

"Any independent voices in media will be bullied and shut down. Black day," he tweeted.

Late on Monday, NDTV posted a document on its website that it said proved the loan in question, worth 480 million rupees ($7.45 million) was repaid more than seven years ago.

"It is clearly the independence and fearlessness of NDTV's team that the ruling party's politicians cannot stomach and the CBI raid is merely another attempt at silencing the media," the company said in an updated statement.

The CBI said the investigation had no link to the editorial side of NDTV, India's oldest English-language all-news channel.

"We have nothing against NDTV's news coverage ... they are accused of a financial fraud and it's our duty to investigate," one of the two senior CBI officials said.

India slipped three places to 136th in this year's World Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders, which highlighted concerns that Hindu nationalists were "trying to purge all manifestations of anti-national thought".

Senior officials in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's office and members of his nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have told Reuters they consider NDTV to be the least government-friendly channel.

In a heated exchange last Thursday, an NDTV moderator demanded that a BJP spokesman either apologise or leave a live debate after he said the channel was pursuing an anti-government agenda.

BEIJING, PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA (6 June 2017) — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) today signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Yanchang Petroleum Group, and Northwest University for a technical assistance grant of $5.5 million to develop a large-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) demonstration project.

“Large-scale demonstration of CCS in a carbon intensive economy such as the PRC could be game changing in the country’s management of emissions,” said Ashok Bhargava, Director of ADB’s Energy Division in its East Asia Regional Department, who signed on behalf of ADB. Also signing were NDRC Department of Climate Change Deputy Director General Zhen Sun, Yanchang Petroleum Group Deputy General Manager Xiangzeng Wang, and Northwest University Vice President Yunxiang Zhang.

Carbon-based fuel accounts for more than 85% of primary energy supply in the PRC with coal contributing about 70%. As the world’s largest carbon dioxide (CO₂) emitter, the Government of the PRC is committed to delink its economic growth from carbon-based fuels consumption. While significant progress is being made driven by energy efficiency measures and rapid deployment of renewable energy, the country can significantly accelerate decoupling its economic growth and carbon emissions with the concurrent adoption of affordable mitigation options, such as CCS, from carbon-based fuels consumption.

CCS is the only available near commercial technology that could abate up to 90% of CO₂ emissions from carbon-based fuels consumption in industrial and power plants. However, in its initial stage of demonstration, investment costs for CCS projects are expectedly high. Larger demonstration and early deployment will help promote the technology’s cost competitiveness.

The government has encouraged all its provinces, cities, and enterprises to promote CCS in key sectors. Arising out of their long-term partnership, NDRC requested ADB to support the formulation of a Roadmap for CCS Demonstration and Deployment. As part of the exercise, potential early demonstration projects, mainly from the coal-chemical industry, were identified and ranked, with the Yanchang CCS project the closest to ready.

Based on a pilot study that started in 2012, Shaanxi provincial government is considering for Yanchang a commercial scale demonstration project abating annually 1 million tons of CO₂, which is equivalent to abating annual CO₂ emissions from nearly 220,000 cars. This would be the first such CCS demonstration project in the PRC.

ADB’s technical assistance project will address key barriers to large-scale CCS demonstration in the PRC by supporting the front-end engineering design of the Yanchang CCS project, including a feasibility study, environmental and social impact assessments, and monitoring. The technical assistance will also support a team of experts at the Joint Engineering Research Center at Northwest University in designing a comprehensive strategy for the PRC to promote CCS.

ADB, based in Manila, is dedicated to reducing poverty in Asia and the Pacific through inclusive economic growth, environmentally sustainable growth, and regional integration. Established in 1966, ADB is celebrating 50 years of development partnership in the region. It is owned by 67 members—48 from the region. In 2016, ADB assistance totaled $31.7 billion, including $14 billion in cofinancing.

news:https://www.adb.org/news/adb-prc-agencies-sign-55-million-grant-pioneer-carbon-capture-project

For the first time in four years, the latest edition of the World Bank's Global Economic Prospects has not downgraded the growth forecast even as new problems have emerged. AFP

Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman and representatives of Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) exchange documents after signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) at the ACC office in the capital on Monday.

The additional excise duty imposed on bank accounts in the proposed budget will increase the influence of bank money in the country’s economy and it will act as a tool to protect loan defaulters, said Executive Director of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) Dr Iftekharuzzaman on Monday, reports UNB.

“Of course, excise duty proposed in the budget will pose a negative impact...it’ll discourage general depositors to deposit their money in banks,” he said at a meeting at the Anti-Corruption Commission’s (ACC) head office.

Replying to questions from reporters, the TIB chief said the government must rethink of the excise duty as it will promote bank money and create risk.

Noting that a strong discussion should be held in Parliament in this regard, he said the excise duty is not acceptable both morally and legally. “This is injustice to general people as it has no moral base.”

Iftekhar said there is no example of such excise duty on bank accounts around the world and expressed his surprise that the system was introduced without any legal base.

He said money will be collected from general people through excise duty increasing tax burden on them and a huge amount of this money will be spent to protect ‘corrupt banking sector’, which will ultimately patronise corruption and irregularities.

Speaking on the occasion, ACC Chairman Iqbal Mahmood said political will is a must to combat corruption and the Commission has received adequate allocation in the proposed budget, which is manifests government’s strong political will.

He said general people do not get public services due to corruption, and it creates black money and promotes money-laundering and terrorism.
The ACC chairman said corruption will adversely affect the future generation, calling upon all to come forward and raise a united voice against the menace.

At the meeting, the ACC and TIB signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) aiming to increase cooperation to jointly carry out prevention activities to check graft.

TIB Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman and ACC Director General Dr Shamsul Arefin signed the deal on behalf of their respective sides.
ACC Commissioner AFM Aminul Islam and its Secretary Abu M Mustafa Kamal were, among others, present.