In Bangladesh, growth needs toaccelerate to absorb the burgeoning labor force and continuemaking dents in poverty. Such acceleration will requiresustained growth in exports and remittances. It will alsoneed an increase in investment both public and private.However, growth acceleration alone will not be enough toabsorb the labor force. This will need an improvement inemployment intensity of growth, and a further improvement ininclusiveness of service delivery. Moreover, to help ensurethat growth acceleration is sustained, the ex-ante andex-post effects of climate change will need to be addressed.Finally, urbanization offers opportunities to accelerategrowth, but can also undermine it if not proactivelymanaged. Bangladesh's Gross National Income (GNI) percapita more than tripled in the past two-and-a-half decades,from an average of US$251 in the 1980s to US$784 by 2011.This growth was accompanied by impressive progress in humandevelopment. Yet, after 40 years of independence, Bangladeshremains a low-income country with nearly 50 million peoplestill impoverished and its economic growth potentialunder-exploited. It is therefore important to understand thedrivers underpinning Bangladesh's growth process, whatenabled the drivers to move Bangladesh forward, what itsprospects are for graduating to middle-income country statusby 2021, as envisaged in its sixth five-year plan, and whatit would take to accelerate growth sufficiently to achievethis objective.
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