The experts attended at a seminar urged the private sector to come up with funds for research and innovation, which will help the country to utilize demographic dividend
A seminar held on “Realizing the Demographic Dividend: Investment on Young People: Reflection on National Budget 2019-20” organised by the South Asian Network on Economic Modelling (Sanem), in partnership with ActionAid Bangladesh in the capital on July 9, 2019.
Experts attending the seminar said, more investment on young people with effective work plan is essential for mitigating the skills mismatch of graduates to enable them to find suitable jobs in order to take demographic dividend.
Deputy Education Minister Mohibul Hassan Chowdhoury was present as chief guest and Planning Commission Member Shamsul Alam as guest of honour while Sanem Executive Director Selim Raihan moderated the dialogue.
Mohibul Hassan Chowdhoury said, the country has not been able to get the demographic dividend yet. He emphasized on developing skills of rural youth along with those in urban areas.
At the seminar, Sayema Haque Bidisha, research director of Sanem while showing her presentation said, “Budget allocation for the ministries concerned, which are related to youth development, is not enough and properly youth sensitive and we did not find relevance of youth development in the budget allocation”.
Professor Alam also termed the next development plan as the launchpad for Bangladesh’s goal of becoming a developed nation by 2041. The plan will also focus on creating quality workforce.
“I will emphasise on applied fields in the Eighth Five Year Plan to utilise the demographic benefit,” he said.
Besides, the experts also said the budgetary allocation for the health and education sectors should respectively go up to become 4 to 5 percent of the GDP by 2030.
Prof Moinul Islam, chairman of the population sciences department of the University of Dhaka, Mohammad Mohidul Islam, a joint director of Bangladesh Bank, and Nimmi Nusrat Hamid, policy research consultant of Brac, also spoke.
