UN-DESA • DPAD • ILO/IILS

National Workshop
Dhaka, Bangladesh
8 August 2012

UN-DESA is collaborating with International Institute of Labour Studies (IILS) of ILO to publish two country studies on growth with equity in Bangladesh and Kenya.

IILS organized an inception workshop in Dhaka on 8 August 2012 to share preliminary findings of the study with stakeholders, particularly with the government and private sector representatives. Dr. Hamid Rashid, Senior Adviser for Macroeconomic Policy in UN-DESA spoke at the opening session of the workshop, which was also attended by the Governor of Bangladesh Bank (Chief Guest), the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Employment (Special Guest) and the President of the Employer's Association (Special Guest). He also made a presentation at the first substantive session of the workshop, which addressed the linkages between macroeconomic policies and employment generation.

The presentation particularly focused on labour and total factor productivity and argued that persistently high share of household consumption restricted growth in domestic savings and gross fixed capital formation in Bangladesh. It also showed that Bangladesh's labour productivity level stagnated during the past two decades, largely due to lack of investments in capital (capital labor ratio) and skills enhancement and recommended a set of fiscal and monetary policy options to boost investment and labour and total factor productivity.