‘Growth, inequality reduction and climate change issues to get priority in next 5-year plan’

GDP growth, addressing inequality by creating employment opportunities and fighting climate change will get the highest priority in the next five-year plan, Shamsul Alam, member (senior secretary) of Bangladesh Planning Commission’s General Economics Division (GED), told a roundtable on Wednesday.

Technical education should be given due importance, he also said, mentioning that foreigners are being hired as there is a lack of skilled professionals at home.

Shamsul also underscored the need for reform in the existing education system.

Prothom Alo, in association with International Labor Organisation (ILO), organised the roundtable on investment on skills development in the 8th five-year plan at Karwan Bazar’s CA Bhaban.

More than one discussants said Bangladesh needs to address the demands of the fourth industrial revolution and put more emphasis on information technology (IT) education.

International Labor Organisation (ILO) country director Tuomo Poutiainen said that the future of the work is changing rapidly and there is a realisation that more coordinated and focused strategies are needed.

Many development partners including ILO are working together with the Bangladesh government on investing in skills development, he added.

National Skill Development Authority’s executive chairman Md Faruque Hossain said there was a lack of coordination among skills development projects in Bangladesh.

Mentioning that 35 per cent of the total population of the country is youth, he said the country had only been able to address skills development issue of 1.07 per cent.

He said the government was planning not to send unskilled labourers to the foreign markets anymore.

Referring to a study, Center for Policy Dialogue’s research director Khondaker Golam Moazzem said foreigners worked in 13 per cent readymade garment (RMG) factories of Bangladesh due to lack of skilled manpower in Bangladesh.

Moazzem said Bangladeshis are lacking mostly in English communication skill and comprehensiveness skill.

Senior development adviser of Canadaian High Commission Riful Jannat stressed the need for infrastructure development and more investment in recruiting adequate teachers in polytechnic institutes.

Bangladesh Employers Federation’s president Kamran T Rahman said while 17 million expatriate workers earned $ 75 billion for India, 10.1 million Bangladeshi workers sent only $16 billion only because of lack of skills.

He urged the authorities to think about entrepreneurship development as well as skills development.

World Bank’s communication consultant Shazia Omar also pointed out the need to bring more women in technical sectors by ensuring enough safety for them.

She also urged the companies that hire foreign experts to invest in creating local expertise so that they can take over within a few years.

UCEP Bangladesh's Didarul Anam Chowdhury, Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training’s senior statistical officer Md Masud Rana, European Union to Bangladesh’s Hans Lambrecht, Asian Development Bank’s project analyst Tania Ferdous, BRAC’s skills development programmme’s director Aftab Uddin Ahmed , officer-in-charge of ILO’s Skill 21 programme Manas Bhattacharya, senior skills development specialist of ILO Kishore Kumar Singh, among others, spoke at the roundtable.

Prothom Alo associate editor Abdul Quayyum delivered the welcome speech while special affairs coordinator Firoz Jaman conducted the roundtable.