Burgeoning middle class

According to the study 'Size and growth of the middle class in Bangladesh: trends, profiles and drivers' unveiled recently by the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), 1 in 4 Bangladeshis will belong to the middle class by 2025. This is being made possible thanks to access to education, finance, IT services and an expansion of the private sector. Indeed, going by what has been published, should present trends prove true, a third of the population will belong to the middle class by 2030.

Greater capital accumulation has led people to invest in secondary or higher levels of education, especially English education. Although two-thirds of the populace still choose Bangla as their choice of language for education, policymakers need to give more emphasis on English as a second language. That more people are moving out of poverty is due to many factors.

One cannot discount the fact that of the 1.3 million people who found employment over the period 2010-13, 0.5 million actually went to work abroad. The ripple effect of billions of dollars of remittances annually is being felt throughout the economy, particularly in more and more people owning property and getting engaged in the informal economy and eventually moving out of poverty.

For Bangladesh to maintain growth, it will require macroeconomic stability, the gradual development of the financial sector, along with liberalisation of the trade regime. What could potentially hold us back is the poor implementation capacity of the government that is leading to cost overruns and missing project deadlines. This is where the challenge lies.