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Meeting the sustainable development challenges will
require raising awareness and understanding of the chal-
lenges and coordinated efforts at local, regional, national
and global levels. The timeframe of NSDS coincides with
the Perspective Plan of Bangladesh 2010–2021 which guides
the economy towards its transition to a middle income
economy by early next decade. The Bangladesh government
has implemented the Sixth Five Year Plan FY 2011–FY2015
which, together with The Perspective Plan and other existing
government plans, policies and strategies are in line with the
SDGs. The strategies highlight the need for population plan-
ning to maintain a balance between population, development
and environment. This has been prioritized because slowing
the growth of population will contribute to the health of the
environment and efforts to increase the standards of living
not just for the present generation, but also for the future.
The strategy document has been prepared through exten-
sive consultation with ministries, development partners,
academia, researchers, civil societies, think tanks and NGOs.
The National Sustainable Development Strategy (NSDS) has
been prepared to meet the formidable environmental chal-
lenges that Bangladesh faces on the way to development.
The Institutional Framework is one of the key elements of
implementation and monitoring progress of the NSDS. It will
maintain coherence between and among different strategic
priority areas and sectors as well as existing national and
sectoral policies during implementation of the strategy and
the monitoring progress.
The objective of a good governance sector strategy is to
ensure an effective parliamentary process, sound law and
order, pro-people public services, an improved legal and
judicial system, strengthened local governance, and a corrup-
tion-free society with social justice. The strategies focus on
strengthening institutional capacity, reforming key institu-
tions, controlling corruption, enhancing efficiency of planning
and budgeting, promoting e-governance, ensuring access to
information, and reviving values and ethics in society.
The Perspective Plan of Bangladesh 2010–2021 has
provided the road map for realization of the national goals
enshrined in The Vision 2021 which embodies a dream that
Bangladesh, on the eve of its 50th anniversary of independ-
ence, will cross into the middle income country threshold,
with citizens enjoying a higher standard of living, better
access to education, improved social justice, and a more equi-
table socio-economic environment. These milestones will be
achieved in a political climate that is in line with core demo-
cratic principles of human rights, freedom of expression, the
rule of law, equality of citizens irrespective of race, religion
and creed, and equality in opportunities.
The Perspective Plan acknowledges that, in order to meet
the desired outcomes by 2021, the country needs better
governance that provides improved incentive mechanisms
for the public sector to deliver results. This improvement
requires enhanced public administration capacity, lower
levels of corruption from increased transparency and
stronger prevalence of the rule of law.
For Bangladesh to qualify as a middle income country, the
government must adopt a prudent macroeconomic frame-
work that ensures macroeconomic stability for the long term.
This necessitates that the policy ensures external and inter-
nal stability through an effective exchange rate policy, low
inflation, and adequate resource mobilization to generate an
optimal level of public and private investment. The goal is to
accelerate real GDP growth to 10 per cent by 2021, and reduce
head count poverty rate to about 14 per cent of 2021 popula-
tion. It begins with a focus on explicit goals, challenges, and
strategies for the agricultural and rural sectors which account
for a significant proportion of the country’s GDP and employ-
ment. The primary goal is to eliminate food deficiency by
improving production that will enable citizens to meet their
nutritional requirement. More specifically, for ensuring food
security by 2021, strategic goals need to be addressed in the
crop sector, fisheries, livestock and poultry, and forestry.
In order to enhance employment generation and rural
development, adequate policy attention must be given to
rural non-farm activities. The industrialization process must
play a central role in accelerating growth and achieving real
GDP growth of 10 per cent by 2021. This means that, in an
era of increasing globalization, the only mantra for survival
and progress is to facilitate the competitive strength of our
industrial sector. In terms of broader goal, the industrial
sector will continue to account for a much larger share of
GDP, reaching 37 per cent in 2021. The Bangladesh economy
today is more integrated with the global market, largely due
to the rapid growth in trade, substantial out-migration of
labour and remittance inflows, financial sector reform, and
creation of favourable FDI regimes. The Perspective Plan
emphasizes that it is very important for Bangladesh to make
use of the complementary resources shared with countries
like India, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar. This makes a case for
greater regional cooperation on trade and trade facilitation,
regional transport, energy trade and water management, FDI
and joint ventures, and cooperation on rail and road projects.
The Vision 2021 also constitutes a goal that is eloquently
described by the Bangladesh Prime Minister as ‘Digital
Bangladesh’ to rapidly address the lack of capacity to generate
productivity improvements from technological progress, which
has long been undermining Bangladesh’s growth potential.
Lastly, the Perspective Plan reiterates that accelerating
economic growth without paying attention to the concepts
of inclusiveness and sustainability holds no meaning.
As a result, the Plan intends to achieve pro-poor growth
with adequate attention to social protection that promotes
participation of the excluded groups – such as poor women,
people from ethnic groups, and socially excluded groups –
in the process of development. The growth experience so
far has also brought chronic environmental degradation.
Consequently, the plan document accepts that the present
decade holds a window of opportunity for halting the process
of environmental degradation through pursuing strategic
actions that generate green growth, and also minimize the
adverse effects of climate change. In sum, the Perspective
Plan of Bangladesh 2010–2021 articulates the means and
ends that Bangladesh wants to adopt and reach on the eve of
its 50th anniversary of independence. It highlights a prag-
matic multidimensional approach in producing an economy
that is innovative and competitive, and the opportunity it
creates allows us to achieve a socially just society.