Dhaka, Apr 30: A joint report of World Bank and Asian Development Bank, while commending Bangladesh's poverty eradication programme as impressive, suggested expanding the economic opportunities for the poorest section of the people is an essential condition for sustained poverty reduction. According to the report - Bangladesh: building on progress - released today, poverty in Bangladesh shrank by a commendable nine percentage points from 1991-92 to 2000 and attributed this to strong, sustained economic growth.

It notes that the average annual GDP increase is almost five per cent and the rise in real, per capita GDP is 36 percent-- or twice the average rate of other low and middle-income countries in the same decade. This impressive performance was fueled by a 86 percent jump in real GDP in the expanding industrial sector with most notable contribution from the ready-made garment segment of industry.

Bureau Report