CPD-DEGRP Policy Dialogue
Challenges of economic transformation and growth: Agriculture and Manufacturing
CPD and DEGRP convened two policy dialogues in Dhaka on 20 February 2014 to discuss challenges and solutions for economic transformation and growth. It brought together international experts and national policy makers to discuss how agriculture and manufacturing (the textile and garments sector in particular) contribute to economic transformation in Bangladesh.
The manufacturing sector
Over the last two decades, Bangladesh has created a vibrant manufacturing industry, particularly through its international garment production. However, much of this sector still involves simple assembly tasks, rather than more skill-intensive design, marketing or textile production. The challenge now for Bangladesh is to upgrade to higher value-added activities. The ability to achieve this will depend partly on whether firms engage in innovation and training for their staff, but also on the right incentive framework and public policiesled by government. Building on the work of a DFID-ESRC Growth Research Programme project, this workshop examined how firms and policy-makers can work together to address co-ordination failures and increase productivity in Bangladesh’s manufacturing sector.
Rural incomes and Agriculture
Economic transformation applies equally to rural Bangladesh, where two changes will likely be critical to rural incomes. One is the extent to which productivity, especially labour productivity, in farming can be raised. The other is the extent to which rural non-farm economy develops, partly in synergy with agriculture, to create additional jobs — preferably with rising labour productivity. The extent of such rural economic transformation was also reviewed in this workshop.
[/tab] [tab title=”About DEGRP“]The DFID-ESRC Growth Research Programme (DEGRP)
This DFID–ESRC funded programme aims to deliver world class scientific research on issues relating to economic growth in Low Income Countries (LICs) with a high potential for impact on policy and practice. DEGRP was officially launched in 2012 and the first two calls for research have focused on three key areas: the financial sector development and growth; agriculture and growth; and innovation and productivity growth.
In addition to building high quality evidence, the programme also aims to ensure that the research is used and has an impact on growth policy in developing countries. The Overseas Development Institute (ODI) leads the Evidence and Policy Group (EPG), and provides support to projects to help maximise the uptake and impact of DEGRP’s research.
Overseas Development Institute (ODI)
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