Bangladesh needs 1.5m new jobs a yr

Bangladesh needs up to 1.5 million new jobs each year for the next 20 years to accelerate economic growth, says the World Bank.

Bangladesh along with other South Asian nations has seen steady job growth and a substantial decrease in poverty over the past three decades, according to a WB report.

The WB yesterday launched the report styled “More and Better Jobs in South Asia” at Brac Centre in Dhaka.

“Accelerating growth in per capita income has added nearly 1.2 million new jobs every year and improved job quality between 2000 and 2010 in the country,” the report says.

But the country could have generated more jobs for the working age population if the top five issues had been addressed properly, the report suggests.

The top five constraints, being faced by the urban firms, are lack of electricity, political instability, corruption, lack of access to land and complicated tax administration, it adds.

It says power outage is estimated to cost Bangladesh about $1 billion a year, reducing GDP growth by about 0.5 percent…

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