Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- Bangladesh has made remarkable progress towards achieving the poverty reduction targets set by the Millennium Development Goals for 2015, the World Bank (WB) said.
The WB’s observation came at a meeting in Washington DC on Wednesday between World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim and Bangladesh Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith.
The meeting also discussed ways to make economic development reach more of the Bangladeshi people through ensuring good governance and strengthening the country’s own institutions and processes, a WB statement said in Dhaka on Thursday.
“ Bangladesh has the potential for faster economic growth and poverty reduction. The World Bank Group can work together with the Government of Bangladesh to reduce the number of poor more rapidly, while having governance and anti-corruption measures in place to ensure that every dollar is used for the intended purpose of benefitting the poor,” Kim said in the statement.
The WB said sustaining annual growth rates of around 6 percent in the past decade, the country has witnessed a profound social transformation with an influx of girls into the education system and women into the labor force.
Economic growth has pulled 16 million people out of poverty in the last 10 years. Development needs, however, remain large and pressing with around 47 million people still living in poverty, according to the WB.
The World Bank has provided around Us$16 billion since 1972, shortly after Bangladesh’s independence, for enhancing access to and quality of the health and education systems, strengthening of the social safety net, modernization of infrastructure, adaptation to climate change, development of agriculture, empowerment of local governments, and for the promotion of reforms to encourage broad based economic growth.
BBN/SSR/AD-28Feb13-11:20 am (BST)