Economic development: The story of progress

After forming the government in 2009, Awami League government under the leadership of Sheikh Hasina has achieved immense success in economic sector. Though the BNP-JAMAAT gang and their heinous activities were the main obstacle in the path of development. But because of the effective steps taken by the incumbent government, the development went smoothly.

The per capita income of Bangladesh has increased from 630$ to 1044$ from 2008. 5 crore people have entered into the middle class. Now the poverty rate is 26 % which was 40 % in 2005. In last four and a half years, 22, 50,200 labors have been sent to abroad for employment. In 2012-13 fiscal year 37,304 female workers have been sent abroad. In the last 4 years9 months of the incumbent government, the amount of total remittance was 58398.24 million $. Now Bangladesh is currently ranked 7th among all the other remittance earning countries in the world.

One of the indicators of the economic development of the country is the reserve of that country. The current reserve of Bangladesh has broken all time record. Current reserve of Bangladesh is now 1,700 crore $, which is second among the South Asian countries. This amount of reserve is enough to pay the import expenses for next five months. When the grand-alliance government came into power in 2009, the reserve was only 535 crore $. In the next four and a half years, it has been almost tripled.
In 2012-13 fiscal year, the earnings from import it 2,708 crore $. In 2008-09 fiscal year, it was 1,480 crore $. In the July-September month, Bangladesh has exported 762.79 core $ worth of goods whereas the target was 728 crore $. Revenue has been doubled , inflation has been decreased to 7 % from 13%.
Government has distributed 1,39,519 crore tk loan to 8,78,401 SME organizations. 5097 crore tk loan has been provided to 39,231 female SME entrepreneurs.
For providing bank service to everyone 3 NRB bank and 6 normal banks has been approved. 41 banks have started online banking system. For the rural people government has approved the opening of 1,218 new branches.
For the first time in Bangladesh, foreign direct investment has crossed the 1 billon mark. Now it is 1.3 billion $.
Because of the bumper production for consecutive years, Bangladesh has been able to cut down its import expenses. Bangladesh has exported 3 thousand 396 crore and 90 lakh $ worth of goods where was it was 3 thousand and 551 crore $ in 2011-12
Garments industry is one of the main factor behind the economical development of a country. 80 % earnings from the export come from this sector. In the 2012-13 fiscal year Bangladesh has earned 21,516 million $ from this sector.
To make Bangladesh a middle-income country, incumbent government has taken different initiatives. The most important initiative was the adoption of “Perspective Plan” 2010-2021. This plan has two phases. Main objective of this plan is by 2021, reducing the poverty rate of our country by 15 %. Another important objective of this plan is increase the growth of Bangladesh to 17% by 2017. Government has taken massive initiatives for increasing the manpower export. Now people can go to abroad for working in much lesser price. Government has also started providing training for them who are going abroad for the working purpose.
It has been almost 42 years, since Bangladesh got its independence. Now we can say that Bangladesh is now a model to other developing countries of the world. “Economist” has described Bangladesh as “out of the basket”. This magazine has described the economic development of Bangladesh a paradox. In spite of all the difficulties Bangladesh has achieved immense success in economic sector. All the credits go to the Awami League government.