Investing in workers' skill development key to boosting growth

Speakers at a programme on Saturday stressed the need for skills development of the existing workforce and making popular the technical and vocational education as the key measures to accelerate the country's economic development.

The government should also invest more on education to improve quality and healthcare sector to ensure demographic dividend, they said.

The suggestions came at the first session of a seven-day DSDE symposium on "Emerging Development Priorities for Bangladesh and Beyond" organised by Desperately Seeking Development Experts (DSDE). The Financial Express was the media partner of the symposium.

Presided over by DSDE founder and managing director of Innovision Consulting Private Limited Md Rubaiyath Sarwar, the programme was addressed by Bangladesh Bank (BB) joint director Asif Iqbal, associate professor of Manhattanville College in USA Nayma Qayyum, World Vision Bangladesh director (advocacy, communication and external engagement) Tony Michael, and national programme officer at International Labour Organization (ILO) Tanjilut Tasnuba, among others.

National consultant (communication and campaign management) of United Nations (UN) Tanjim Ferdous moderated the programme while UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) consultant Galib Ibn Anwarul Azim presented the keynote paper.

Speaking on the occasion, the BB joint director said the regulatory bodies should be made stronger and independent for enforcing the regulatory directives in a more effective manner.

The Micro, Small & Medium Enterprise (MSME) should be in the centre of development agenda so that the local industry gains strength to gradually make their way to the international market, he said.

He added that to reduce MSME's dependency on only banks, cooperatives should be made more functional and FinTecs should be encouraged to increase the scope of digital and mono credits.

Besides, the central bank official said financial instruments like factoring, warehouse financing, warehouse receipt financing, cluster-based financing, and value chain financing are required to support small businesses in the coming future.

"If there were instruments like micro insurance or small business insurance, many small businesses wouldn't get extinct during the pandemic," he said, adding that loan-based products are not sustainable solution for the small enterprises.

Ms Tasnuba said there are 23 ministries that work on skills development programmes, but those are not coordinated for the best output.

Stressing the need for reviewing the existing National Skills Development Policy, she said the policy should reflect development of skills set to be required in near future in line with Digital Bangladesh and 4th Industrial Revolution.

Mr. Michael pointed out that the biggest damage caused by the pandemic to the country is in education sector, and said there are still no directives about how the country would recover from that immense void.

Mentioning that the 'examination passing centric education' has done much harm to the country's education system, he said it is time to integrate the technical and vocational education at much earlier stage of schooling.

In the presentation, Mr. Azim said that despite heavy investments in infrastructure development, connectivity and energy sector, investments in human development such as in health and education sectors have been comparatively lower and inadequate.

He said shifting the focus from numbers like GDP growth, per capita income, FDI growth, infrastructure investments to quality of human life is much needed now.

Development priorities for the decade of 2021-2030 should include driving MSME growth through inclusive finance and supporting the sustainable transition of the agriculture and other value chains, he added.

Public Health Foundation Bangladesh executive director Dr Taufique Joarder, ACDI/VOCA Team Lead Support (Market Systems and Social Inclusion) Bidowara Tahsin Khan, and Oxfam Bangladesh head of Climate Justice and Natural Resources Rights Enamul Mazid Khan Siddique also spoke at the programme.