Bangladesh should now focus on job-led growth by creating new entrepreneurship to achieve sustainable development, according to a case study on the country by the World Bank.

The country has been pursuing the model of export-led growth for the last 20 years, but the time has come to accelerate growth of the private sector and entrepreneurship that will create a vibrant job market and lead to better productivity, it said.

Job creation will help raise living standards, increase aggregate productivity and enhance social cohesion, according to draft World Development Report 2013: Jobs, which will come out next year and highlight Bangladesh's success stories.

The report will contain the case study and demonstrate further measures the country should take to run on the track of sustainable development.

BIDS and BRAC yesterday co-organised a consultative workshops to share the Bangladesh case study at BRAC Centre in Dhaka.

Bangladesh has turned around in the past two decades from 'test case' to 'success case' among the least developed countries, said Binayak Sen, a member of the Bangladesh Country Study Team.

He said the country has achieved successive growth over the last three decades thanks to the contribution of agriculture, remittance and export earnings.

“This strategy had worked till 2010. But, it is time to focus on creating jobs in urban areas as 35 percent people now live in the area, which was 12 percent in 1974,” Sen said.

“We are not being able to give to people the jobs that match their academic qualifications and training,” the researcher said.

The country's young workforce is educated and wants to pursue careers in decent jobs. "Sometimes, they choose to remain jobless until they get a desired job, which is a huge economic loss,” Sen said.

"It will be a huge challenge if the skilled and young workforce does not get their desired jobs. It will create frustration among them,” he said. "We have to expand growth of the private sector for creating jobs."

Jobless growth has direct adverse implications for the living standards of those whose main asset is labour power or skill, said the study.

It said the country should focus on technological progress and productivity improvements to accelerate the growth momentum.

The study said inadequate job creation or a supply demand mismatch can be detrimental to social cohesion, which in turn can reduce future growth.

Several shifts in the composition of output have taken place between 1990 and 2010. It has shifted from farm to non-farm, from agriculture to industry, from low-value added products and informal service to high-value-added and formal services, and from domestic market to export markets.

It said the industry's share has increased from around 20 percent to 30 percent, while the share of formal services -- financial, wholesale trade and information technology -- has grown to 50 percent during the period.

Export's share in GDP has increased to 18 percent in 2006-07 from 7 percent in 1977-82 with more than 90 percent being manufactured exports.

Remittance from abroad has increased to around 10 percent of GDP in the last fiscal year, up from 5 percent in the late 1990s; aid inflow's share in GDP came below 2 percent compared to 10 percent in 1981-82, according to the study

Mahabub Hossain, executive director of BRAC and a member of the Bangladesh Country Study Team, chaired the consultation session with policymakers and academics.

The draft study is expected to be finalised by July and will be released next year.

The Daily Star/Bangladesh/ 24th Jan 2012