Opening slide: Assalamu Alaikum. Welcome everyone & a very good afternoon.

Today our
presentation topic is “GDP & it’s contribution”. My two group members have already
described various aspects of the GDP of Bangladesh. Now I am going to describe another most
important component of GDP. So, for next 10-15 minutes I will show you a lot of numbers &
tables. Kindly bear with me.

Second slide: today our points of discussion are following

Third slide: Bangladesh has started its journey as an agricultural country. After almost 50
years of its independence still our economy is heavily dependent on agriculture, but
Bangladesh is slowly moving towards industrialization. Though the pace of the transformation
has been slow, but Bangladesh has made significant remarks in this sector. The GDP of
Bangladesh is gradually increasing every year & our GDP growth rate is significant compared
to other developing countries.
Today we are going to see how industrialization leading the way of development for
Bangladesh.
Industries in Bangladesh can be break down in following broad & subcategories

Fourth slide: This change is also reflected on accumulation of the GDP of Bangladesh. In
recent year

Fifth slide: Bangladesh has adopted industrial policy in 2016 to accelerate the growth of
industrialization. The timeline & the mission of these policies are as following

Sixth slide: so, the main focus of our government is to develop the small & medium
enterprises or SME. For a developing country like Bangladesh it is a perfect plan to focus on
small & medium enterprises as the level of infrastructure for large industries in Bangladesh is
not fully developed yet.
Here in the following table we can see that the amount of SME loan disbursement by banks
& non-bank financial institutions has increased gradually over the last 10 years. Government
is also trying to include women in small & medium enterprises.
We have seen that during world war & industrial revolution women played an important role
develop the economy. The accumulation of these small & medium enterprises throughout
the country can be very significant. At the same time, SME does not require a lot of heavy
machineries & rigorous training. Therefore, SME can plan an important role in developing the
economy of Bangladesh & farther achieving higher GDP growth.

Seventh slide: The lion share of our industry comes from manufacturing sector. Over the
years Bangladesh has developed its medium & large industries. These medium & large
industries are growing at 9% rate every year on average.
If we look at the table of volume & growth of manufacturing sector, we can see that the
growth of small & cottage industries is increasing gradually. The growth rate for large
industries is also increasing at a rate of 9% on average for last ten years. And the total growth
rate for manufacturing industries was almost 15% for fiscal year 2018-19

Eighth slide: To achieve a healthy GDP growth rate there is nothing more important than a
positive net export. With a vision to export more products in abroad Bangladesh has
established export processing zones all over the country. Currently 8 epzs are working in
different areas of the country.
If you look at this table, we can see that according to the BEPZA, till February 2019, 470
industries are in operation & 102 industries are under implementation.
We can also see that significant amount of export income comes from Dhaka & Chittagong
epz. Our government is planning to open more epzs all around the country. But in my opinion
before opening more epzs we need to focus on the development of existing epz as most of
the new epz are not performing up to the mark & they still lack various facilities. So, our
government need to up to date all these epzs so that they can attract more investors.

Nineth slide: the situation is clearer if we look at epz wise investment & export table. The
export amount earned by other epz beside Dhaka & Chittagong is very insignificant. The
amount of investment is also very low. The situation can become worse due to ongoing
pandemic.

Tenth slide: no country can develop without electricity & it is said that electricity is the
backbone of industrialization. Bangladesh has developed tremendously in production
capacity of power supply over the years.
If we look at the following graph, then we can see that the installed capacity of power
generation of Bangladesh is 18079mwh up to February 2019. More than half of this installed
capacity is largely dependent on natural gas & half of the installed capacity is generated by
public sector.
Here one important thing that we need to notice is that installed capacity of power generation
by renewable resource is very insignificant. It is not even 1% of the total installed capacity.
Only 0,13% of installed capacity is based on renewable energy.
Most of the developed countries are moving toward renewable energy to generate power.
Our power generation capacity is largely dependent on natural gas which is depletable
resource. It is estimated that in next few years, our stock of natural gas will be completely
exhausted.

Eleventh slide: The situation is more eminent in this graph. In previous graph we have seen
that only 0.13% of the installed capacity is based on renewable energy. But only 0.04% of
generated energy is based on renewable energy which is very low.
We need to move toward renewable energy as the use of depletable resource is costly. If we
want to accelerate the GDP growth of Bangladesh, we need to increase the use of renewable
resource.
Twelfth slide: If we look at the following table, we can see the amount of installed capacity
& maximum generation of power over the previous ten years. In every case maximum
generation of power is lower than installed capacity. This means that out infrastructure is not
being used fully. If we want to reap the benefit of industrialization, we need to generate more
power. As I have said earlier if we increase the use of renewable energy, we can generate
more power which can be used to manufacturing sector.

Thirteenth slide: Now let us look at the production & consumption of natural gas in
Bangladesh. Natural gas is one of the important resources that Bangladesh has. But it is
alarming that the stock of natural gas in Bangladesh is depleting rapidly.
If we look at the following table, we can see the sector of consumption of natural gas in
Bangladesh. Lion’s share of our natural gas is being used to produce energy. Moving toward
renewable energy can solve this problem we can use this leftover natural gas in industries, or
we can reduce the amount of extraction so that our resource can last longer.
Another important aspect is that significant amount if extracted natural gas is being used for
domestic consumption. There is no country in this world which supplies gas to its citizens
through pipelines. Domestic consumption of natural gas is very alarming. Most of the people
are not aware of depletable resource & they take the supply of natural gas for granted.
Therefore, huge amount of gas is being wasted by households every year. We need to limit
the use of natural gas by households & strict provision need to be taken. Fortunately,
government Is trying to introduce pre-paid meter-based gas supply system. Though the
system is not pervasive till now, but it is good to see some steps taken at last.
Another aspect that we can analyze from the following table is that the deficit between our
production & consumption level. For past few years, Bangladesh has started importing
liquefied natural gas. The amount of import is increasing every year. Because of this important
Bangladesh is bearing a huge cost also.

Fourteenth slide: If we look at the following table which shows the sector wise gas demand
forecast till 2030, then we can see that there is speculation of increase in demand for gas for
next 10 years. But unfortunately, the production of gas is not commensurate with the
demand. So, there is going to be huge deficit in near future, and we need to take necessary
steps right now. If we need to import more gas over the next years, then this huge cost of
import will have adverse effect on the GDP growth & it can be stalled.

Fifteenth slide: Bangladesh has some other minerals & natural resources besides natural
gas. Though the number of theses natural resources beside natural gas is insignificant but still
these minerals are important for the economy of our country as these are being used to
produce various products like glass, ceramic, coal, stone etc.
If we look at the following slide, we can see that

Sixteenth slide: I want to conclude today’s discussion with the flowing graph. This graph
was formulated by Asian development bank which shows the GDP growth rate of Bangladesh
with other Asian countries. This report published by adb has speculated that Bangladesh will
see the fastest GDP growth rate among all the Asian countries & they speculated that the GDP
growth rate in Bangladesh will reach to all time high 8% in thus year 2020. But the unfortunate
thing is that we are going through a pandemic & the world economy is growing at a sluggish
rate. Maybe it will be appropriate to say that the economy is taking a downturn. It is difficult
for a developing country like Bangladesh to absorb the economic shock. We do not have that
level of infrastructure & our financial & capital market is very volatile. Already many peoples
have lost their job & a lot of people are experiencing a cut in their salary. With this ongoing
economic disaster, economists have speculated that the current economic situation can
farther escalate & can be worse than the great depression. So, it is for sure that Bangladesh
will experience a reduction in its GDP growth, but the question is how much it will get down.
Government has taken various stimulus packages to support the different group of the
people. Though it is not adequate, but we all know that something is better than nothing. Let
us finger cross & hope for a resurrection of the global economy. May we all get the desired
job that we have been waiting for.

Seventeenth slide: So that was all from me. I hope I did not kill you out of boredom. Thank
you everyone for listening to my presentation. If you have any questions you can ask without
any hesitation. I will try my best to answer.