RIGHT after having its capital city ranked as the 2nd most unlivable city in the world, Bangladesh suffered yet another blow after international reports indicated the nation’s poor performance in a knowledge economy index due to its failure in shifting from labour-intensive growth to productivity-led growth. According to the ‘Innovative Asia: Advancing the Knowledge-based Economy’ report published by the Asian Development Bank, Bangladesh ranked 27th amongst 28 emerging economies in Asia and the Pacific and were falling behind on their path to becoming a middle income nation.
According to our Finance Minister AMA Muhith, Bangladesh would have to come out of the league of the least developed countries and move forward to become a middle income nation for which “we need to make a quantum leap.” He also added that he would start improvements in the ICT and higher education sector, which would hopefully yield results that would bode well for Bangladesh. Even though the nation fell behind Sri Lanka (17th), India (22nd), Pakistan (23rd) and Nepal (26th), the Minister believes that the slight growth that has occurred compared to the last few years bodes well for Bangladesh. Bangladesh scored 1.49, which is much lower than the Asia and Pacific average of 4.39 and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) average of 8.25.
Any score below three would be regarded as ‘poor’ because the average score was 4.39 for the region, according to Biru Paksha Paul, an Associate Professor of Economics at the State University of New York at Cortland. In terms of rankings, Bangladesh was ranked 26th in terms of innovation, 25th in education and skill, and ICT, and 24th in economic and institutional regime, said the ADB report based on the World Bank index. The report made it clear that much of the positive growth in Asia has resulted from its economies’ long-held comparative advantage in labour-intensive goods. This will prove difficult for emerging economies to follow under the same growth models as technological progress changes the ways countries produce and trade.
According to economic experts, “Knowledge will become increasingly important as a source of productivity growth. While many countries in Asia have expanded their industrial base and increased the share of the services sector, they need to avoid being stuck in the middle-income trap – knowledge-based economy is an important way forward.”
Considering the appalling state of our nation’s current higher education system, the government must make an effort in improving the standard of higher education and create more avenues for the new generation to have access to better knowledge and research so that the current dismal state dissipates. Delay or indifference may rather prove too costly pulling the country backward in terms of economic advancement.
