“Now our plan is to prioritise the youths. We are trying to increase our economic growth by creating employment. We plan to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 and build a developed country by 2041,” he said at national dialogue on ‘Realising the Demographic Dividend: Investment on Young People’ at a hotel in Dhaka.

South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM), in partnership with ActionAid Bangladesh, organised the dialogue. 

Dr Sayema Haque Bidisha read out the keynote papers on “Realising the Demographic Dividend through Investing on Young People: Reflection on National Budget 2019-20”.

“We need to implement budget allocations properly,” said Dr Alam, member (Senior Secretary) of GED of Bangladesh Planning Commission.

“We’ve no idea about what kind of job opportunities will be created in the next five years. For that we need more research. Public and private universities should give emphasis to research, so that the University Grants Commission (UGC) can reflect in this regard. We need quality education and research for the development of the country,” he said.

Deputy Education Minister Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury Nowfel said that the country has seen overall development in the last several years.

“Many young people are living in rural areas. They have to be connected with the national economy,” he added. 
  
Mohibul said that the government has no plan to hire foreign teachers and instead it plans to train teachers.

Country Director of ActionAid Farah Kabir emphasised providing safety to women to ensure their participation in the workforce.

SANEM Executive Director Dr Selim Raihan urged the private sectors to invest in research. 

“We have many challenges in future to achieve our goals of development. We must overcome them using the youths,” he added.