Rising inequality, sluggish private investment and lower revenue collection brought down the gains on economic and social fronts during the Sixth Five-Year Plan implementation period.

Between July 2010 and June 2015, Bangladesh pulled off a 6.3 percent average annual economic growth, the highest since 1974, but the growth fell short of the targets set by the government.

The agriculture sector grew slowly while the manufacturing sector posted higher growth.

Job creation took place mostly in the first three years of the period and only 14 lakh jobs were created in the last two years, according to a paper styled Implementation Review of the 6th Five Year Plan and Its Attainments.

“We fell behind to some extent in job creation in the last two years. Overall, job creation exceeded the target. This is the comfortable news,” said Planning Commission Member Prof Shamsul Alam while presenting the paper at a programme.

General Economics Division of the Planning Commission organised the event to unveil the report at Krishibid Institution Bangladesh in Dhaka. Prof Alam said 79 lakh jobs were created during the period.

He said macroeconomic fundamentals had been good during the period. Public investment increased significantly and the use of resources provided in the annual development programme improved steadily and there had been surpluses in balance of payments.

But private investment remained stagnant at 22 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP).

Dubbed the main source of employment, private investment slipped to 22.1 percent of the GDP in the fiscal year of 2014-15 from 22.2 percent in 2010-11, according to the paper.

The tax-to-GDP ratio, which indicates the financial capacity of a nation to bankroll spending, declined instead of rising during the five-year period.

“It was supposed to grow faster. But we could not raise the tax-to-GDP ratio above 10 percent,” said Alam.

The planner said access to electricity was higher than the target in the SYFP period. The country made impressive strides in raising life expectancy and reducing under-5 mortality rate as well as poverty.

“But income inequality widened,” said Alam. He, however, added that the level of disparity is yet to reach the danger level.

Economist Prof Wahiduddin Mahmud said private investment had not increased because of problems in business climate and a lack of infrastructure and serviced land.

The recent economic growth was mainly driven by public investment and remittance, he said. 

“It is expenditure-driven,” said Mahmud, warning that infrastructure financing based on foreign loan might create problems in future unless export-oriented private and foreign investment flows in.

He said Bangladesh is the only developing country that registered rising economic growth every five years since the 1980s.

“The biggest failure in the SFYP was that the revenue-to–GDP ratio fell below the base year level.”

Mahmud said the government would have to pay attention to create jobs outside the agriculture sector if it wanted to make the most of demographic dividend.

He said a portion of students would drop out from the secondary education level, so the country would have to ensure that the skills of this section of the workforce are in keeping with the requirements of employment-generating sectors.

Mahmud said the real wages of workers were increasing at a slower pace than the growth of per capita GDP. “We have made advancement in social sectors but we could not reduce disparity. It is a matter of concern,” said Agriculture Minister Muhammad Abdur Razzaque.

He stressed on skill education instead of churning out graduates without skills. 

“Political stability, transparency and accountability have become essential to keep the momentum of the economy.”

Planning Minister MA Mannan warned against complacency about the nation's progress on various fronts.

Talking about inequality, he said, “It is good to confront the reality instead of evading it.”

He emphasised proper prioritisation, saying there are some problems with determining priorities.

Md Abdul Kalam Azad, principal coordinator for Sustainable Development Goals Affairs at the Prime Minister's Office, said law and order situation was linked with development.