Atiur urges WB to extend support for job creation

BSS, Dhaka :
Bangladesh Bank (BB) Governor Dr Atiur Rahman urged the World Bank (WB) to extend its support to Bangladesh for creating more jobs, which is a major challenge and warrants constant assistance from development partners.
The governor sought WB’s support particularly for capacity building in carrying out systematic assessments of the various initiatives for job creation and upgrading labour market productivity. He was speaking at the WB Group Technical Sessions on Jobs in Washington, DC, USA on Thursday, according to a BB press release received here last night.
Dr Atiur also mentioned that the government with support of the development partners is pursuing a comprehensive plan for upgrading education and skills development training of the labour force with sharper focus on actual needs in the job market.
He, however, referred to the country’s limited resources, shortfall in skills and experiences in systematic impact assessment of job creative initiatives, and said necessary support from the WB Group and other development partners would help Bangladesh indentify the most pressing job challenges.
Dr Atiur said Bangladesh requires maintaining focus on job creation in farm and off-farm SMEs (small and medium enterprises) and green initiatives to accommodate the tens of thousands of tech savvy young science and technology graduates, entering the job market every year.
The governor said a major portion of the labour force are engaged in low and informal employment or self-employment as their productivity remained depressed by poverty driven disadvantages in health, education and job training.
“In such a context, inclusive equitable socioeconomic development is the obvious choice of option for job creation and labor productivity,” he said.
He said Bangladesh government’s private sector led inclusive development strategy pursues empowerment of the poor with social sector public expenditure outlays in healthcare, education and job training, alongside support initiatives for job creation in agriculture, manufacturing and services.
The governor also attended the seminar on capacity development assistance at George Washington University in Washington DC, USA on the same day. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) organised the seminar.
Dr Atiur is now in the USA to attend the annual meeting of IMF and WB Group.