by Touhid Shipar Rafiquzzaman:

BANGLADESH has achieved quite a few milestones in the past decade, including, but not limited to, a high GDP growth, a higher per capita income than some South East Asian neighbours, one of the top three apparel exporters, a low child mortality rate and a high life expectancy, major infrastructure projects and the graduation to a developing country in a few years.

The planning minister has recently announced that our per capita income has swelled to $2,824 in the outgoing 2022 financial year from $2591. The continuous growth in all financial parameters is commendable by any standard, particularly at the back of the unprecedented devastation of Covid-19 coupled with the current Russia-Ukraine war. However, the per capita income registered the increase amidst the rising number of new poor because of the protracted Covid outbreak and the splayed income disparity. Some 32 million more people have become new poor during the Covid outbreak, according to a survey that the Power and Participation Research Centre and the BRAC Institute of Governance and Development carried out in November 2021.

Nonetheless, how this increased per capita income translates into daily lives and how much it grows the wealth individually is what we need to apprehend. Per capita income is a measure of the amount of money earned per person in a nation or a country in a stipulated time frame. It can be used to determine the standard of living and the quality of life. It is calculated by dividing the gross national income by its population. The GNI, previously known as gross national product, is the combination of the total domestic and foreign output contributed or produced by citizens. The GNI is composed the gross domestic product and incomes earned by foreign residents, minus income earned in the domestic economy by non-residents in a time period. The GNI, therefore, estimates products generated by citizens, regardless of the geographic location of the income.

The GDP is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced in a specific time period by countries. Similarly, like per capita income, per capita GDP is calculated by dividing the total GDP by the population. The GDP is often used as a yardstick for international comparison as well as a related scale of economic development. It is often considered the world’s most influential statistical indicator of national development and progress. Bangladesh has registered an impressive GDP growth of 7.25 per cent during the outgoing financial year up from 6.94 per cent in the past year.

Hence, both the per capita income and the per capita GDP are a mathematical exercise rather than a direct indication of what each citizen actually makes. It does also not reflect the qualitative or evaluative analysis of the population. Wealth distribution is also conspicuous by its absence from this calculation rendering the per capita income incomplete in epitomising the true picture of the population in entirety in terms of quality of life and living standards. We can somewhat resolve this wealth distribution concern by looking at the Gini coefficient, a statistical tool which denotes the distribution of the wealth to its entire population.

This tool is universally acknowledged to predict an almost accurate picture of the income disparity status within a population, which is why economists globally apply this tool to their wealth distribution analysis. The lower the ratio, the better the distribution while a higher ratio exposes worse inequality or in simple terms the concentration of wealth to a small group of the population, which is certainly not desirable. The Gini coefficient was 32.40 per cent in 2016, 39.5 per cent in 2018 and around 40.2 per cent in 2020 for Bangladesh, a deteriorating trend which is worrying and alarming. According to the National Human Development Report 2021, released by the Economic Relations Division in January 2022, the richest 5 per cent of the population of Bangladesh owned nearly 30 per cent of the national income while the poorest 5 per cent possesses less than 0.3 per cent. While it is a fact, it is not an appropriate consequence despite the swelling of the per capita income.

Unfortunately, a growing inequality in developing countries is not an uncommon occurrence and being a developing country, Bangladesh’s income disparity is expected to amplify for a certain period before tapering down in future.

Admittedly, we should not consider the growth of the per capita income in isolation. We also need to carefully review the quality of life and living standards of the population in conjunction with the per capita income growth with a holistic approach to understand the value of the per capita income to individuals and resultantly to enjoy benefits of the current economic performance. A high per capita income along with the quality of life and living standards are key components of a successful and developed country. These include the following basic amenities the absence of which would nullify the economic development and per capita would income meaningless.

— Healthcare facilities: accessible and first-rate comprehensive medical facilities.

— Education: the availability of high quality, relevant and competitive education system of international standards.

— Accommodation: affordable accommodation, including subsidised housing for the people who need them, with convenience of all basic amenities.

— Safety and security: resilient, competent and efficient law enforcing agencies.

— Technology: digitization and knowledge to the doorstep of the entire population.

— Food: A stable supply of all staple food items and safety thereof at all times with regular close monitoring of goods prices.

— Sustainability: Renewable energy and climate adaptive measures to reduce related impact on the poor, who bear the brunt of climate change, especially in Bangladesh.

We have, however, noticed that the above is still a far cry from an international level. The Covid outbreak has seriously exposed our weak, fragile and inadequate medical facilities. Patients were not even able to get the basic and primary healthcare services during initial days of the outbreak. The medical system was overwhelmed and the authorities were in a complete disarray to handle the situation. Corruption was evident which made accessibility to medical services much more difficult for ordinary people. However, the government redeemed itself with a very successful vaccination management after the initial hiccup.

The quality of education remains less than inspiring. A high pass rate does not necessarily indicate a high quality of education. We should certainly focus on quality, and not quantity, and overhaul the existing education system in line with the modern and practical education method of developed countries for a more holistic curriculum, including the eradication of memory-based tests, encouraging women to enter STEM fields, guidance and mentoring of pupils and student safety, among others.

The government is extending permanent accommodation through its Ashrayan project to the impoverished population, which is admirable. This scheme has to be expanded as much as possible while ensuring an acceptable quality and accountability of the authorities concerned to avoid any sort of wrongdoings.

We also need to ensure people-friendly law enforcement agencies. The quality of living standard is heavily dependent on this support system. People should feel confident and secure to approach the law enforcement agencies to undertake any grievances and promptly find a solution. Especially because of the increase in crimes and gender-based violence during the Covid outbreak, the accountability of the government machinery is of paramount importance in achieving a harmonious life going forward. The administration should strive hard to relieve it from all negative associations and to serve people better.

Technology and digitization are game changers in today’s fast-paced life. The government has made quite a stride in this respect, especially in its pledges for ‘a digital Bangladesh.’ We need to continue this to reach each and every one of the population to make services easily available to all, especially the poor and vulnerable, whether it is online banking, telemedicine, taxes, online billing, and online police complaints. This is imperative in taking us to the next level of development.

The importance of food safety is second to none. The government has to ensure a consistent food production, supply and distribution of staple food items such as rice, flour and other produces as well as stable prices to feed the 180 million people throughout the year.

The Global Climate Risk Index ranks Bangladesh as the world’s seventh most-affected country between 2000-2019, calling for an aggressive adaptation and resilience measures to combat the increasing loss of natural capital and environmental degradation exacerbated by climate change. According to the World Bank, the estimated average annual losses from disaster are at around $3 billion, or about 1–2 per cent of the gross domestic product. By 2050, climate change is likely to cost Bangladesh a further 2 per cent of the gross domestic product on top of its baseline losses to climate hazards. The result will be experienced in an increase in urban migration, adverse impact on agriculture and many plunging into extreme poverty. As such, it is essential for Bangladesh to reduce its carbon footprint and apply climate adaptive growth strategies.

The government has initiated the following large-scale projects in the past decade that will continue to transform the country rapidly and extend world-class modern infrastructure to its population. The authorities have hopefully considered the projects depending on the necessities and priorities of the population, but they need to ensure limiting cost escalation, timely completion, usage of high-quality materials, plug pilferage, avoid multiple amendments and modifications. The successful completion of these large-scale projects will then be beneficial to the entire population — Padma Bridge rail link, Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant,  Dhaka elevated expressway, Chittagong–Cox’s Bazar rail link, Matarbari coal power plant, Matarbari deep sea port and Dhaka International Airport third terminal.

In conclusion, following attributes are essential to improve on our wealth distribution and for the people to reap benefits of the outcome of the economy:

— Competent, efficient, effective and accountable administration and the decentralization and empowerment of 64 city administrations; independent, and impartial judiciary; strong and unprejudiced constitutional institutions; the application and execution of regulations, statutes, decrees, policies, procedures to ensure proper law and order and justice for all; improvement in the entire communication system by way of a radical change in the organisation and coordination to ensure easy and hassle-free mobility and safety; the strengthening of surveillance teams to eradicate corruption as much as possible; close monitoring and supervision of the entire financial system; unwavering, inclusive, reconciliatory, non-violent and accommodative socio-political environment; the freedom of expression; and transparency and accountability.

The silver lining can be found in Bangladesh’s improvement in the world happiness index report amidst the Covid outbreak. The United Nations Sustainable Development network put Bangladesh in the 94th position with 5.1555 points out of 10 among 146 countries in the report published on March 19, 2022 on the eve of World Happiness day. The latest Human Development Index ranked Bangladesh 133rd out of 189 countries.

Our overall sustainable development covering economic, industrial, socio- political and infrastructural issues, among others, has been appreciated by world leaders. There is a feel-good factor with all these landmark developments and this notable per capita income is another feature in the cap, but we have to ensure other basic needs concurrently for the population to understand, appreciate and enjoy benefits of this performance.

Touhid Shipar Rafiquzzaman is a retired banker.