The economy of Bangladesh is growing steadily benefiting from reforms and increasing openness. Annual GDP growth has accelerated from 4.1% in the period FY1973-1978 to 6.2% in FY2008-2013. Excitingly, since FY 2015-16 Bangladesh has been experiencing more than 7.0% GDP growth which crossed 8.0% in 2018-19 that gives the country an aspiration to claim up to double digits. Literacy rate has increased over past decades, so has school enrollment, and particularly girls and women’s participation in education. Population and labor force is predominantly young with more than a third in the 15-34 age group in 2010. Bangladesh is well-placed to benefit from the demographic dividend up to 2050 and perhaps beyond due to decline in fertility rates which, combined with effective policies and markets, triggers faster rates of economic growth and human development.
This may be reinforced by the growth of labor productivity through skills development and technological progress especially Information and Communication Technology (ICT) driven move towards a knowledge economy. However, skill is recognized after infrastructure and energy as the prime factor to industrial growth, productivity, export diversification and producing high value products. It needs to be mentioned here that the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) Bangladesh Country Partnership Strategy (for 2012–2016) identifies the low competitiveness of firms as a key constraint to growth particularly the low skills and low productivity of the workforce.
Foreign remittances play a very vital role in Bangladesh economy. Bangladeshi expatriates are the main source of this remittance. But most of the Bangladeshis working abroad are unskilled or semiskilled are sending very low remittance when compared to South East Asian Countries. For steady and higher remittance inflows, enhancement of skills of the aspirant migrant workers has no alternative.
