Bangladesh can end extreme poverty by 2030: WB

The World Bank said Bangladesh has done an impressive job in reducing poverty over the last decade and has the potential to end extreme poverty by 2030 if it takes firm steps to make growth more inclusive to benefit all Bangladeshis.

Two new reports titled 'Bangladesh Development Update' and 'Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2016: Taking on Inequality', published today, find that Bangladesh is making sustained progress in poverty reduction and increasing opportunities.

Under the new $1.90 poverty line based on 2011 purchasing power, 28 million, or 18.5 percent of Bangladeshis lived in extreme poverty in 2010, according to the reports.

More than 16 million people in Bangladesh graduated from extreme poverty between 2000 and 2010, the reports said.

Achieving the goal of reducing extreme poverty to less than 3 percent of Bangladeshis by 2030 will require economic growth becoming more inclusive with the poorest 40 percent of society receiving greater benefits from development.

To move to the next level and realise its goals of becoming a middle income country by 2021 and overcoming extreme poverty by 2030, the country needs to sustain its economic and remittances growth, create more and better jobs, focus on energy and transportation infrastructure, and make progress on improving the quality of health and education.

World Bank Group President to visit Dhaka later this month

World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim plans to travel to Bangladesh later this month as part of a global End Poverty Day campaign. His visit is intended to draw attention to Bangladesh's impressive record in dramatically reducing extreme poverty.

"I'm very much looking forward to seeing firsthand Bangladesh's progress in improving the livelihoods of tens of millions, empowering women, and enhancing the quality of education," Kim said.

"Many developing countries in the world can learn important lessons from Bangladesh to reduce extreme poverty and to promote sustainable development," he added.