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Prime Minister's Finance and Planning Advisor Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir
Bangladesh holds the potential to become a global benchmark in poverty reduction by integrating its proven record in overseas employment, female labor force participation in readymade garments, and social safety nets with productive investment, job creation, and tax base expansion, stated Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Finance and Planning.
Titumir presented these perspectives while addressing a high-level regional conference titled "Asia for All: Public Services, Social Protection, and the Promise of Shared Prosperity," co-hosted by the Faculty of Economics at Chulalongkorn University and Oxfam in Asia on Friday (October 9) in Bangkok, Thailand, ahead of the annual meetings of the World Bank and the IMF.
Speaking at a session titled "Financing Economic Equality: Mobilizing Resources for Public Services," Titumir highlighted that disjointed safety net programs historically allowed significant targeting errors, leaving eligible recipients excluded while ineligible individuals benefited. Highlighting pandemic-induced economic shocks that pushed an estimated 7 million to 10 million citizens into poverty, he advocated for a life-cycle-based social security framework linked directly to productive employment and income-generating opportunities. He pointed out that integrating millions of Bangladeshi migrant workers into Gulf labor markets and mobilizing female employment through the RMG industry demonstrated how expanded earning opportunities deliver durable poverty alleviation.
Outlining policy innovations, Titumir cited the digital Government-to-Person (G2P) "Family Card" initiative, projected to cover 16.1 million beneficiaries by 2030 and potentially reduce the national poverty headcount by 5 percentage points. He also detailed the "Krishan Card" (Farmer Card) program, designed to disburse direct cash incentives and agricultural support services, projecting it could lift agricultural productivity and real GDP by 0.7 to 1 percent by 2030. To foster sustainable, climate-resilient livelihoods, he cited public initiatives to excavate or re-excavate 20,000 kilometers of canals and plant 250 million trees over five years.
Addressing systemic global economic shocks, Titumir tabled a six-point reform proposal: concessional multilateral liquidity facilities for fuel-import-dependent economies; trade finance guarantees during international commodity volatility; automatic debt service suspension mechanisms during severe crises; reallocation of unused Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) from advanced economies to vulnerable developing nations; balanced Green Climate Fund allocations alongside effective carbon trading mechanisms; and strengthened South-South cooperation through regional free trade frameworks, specifically between Bangladesh, Thailand, and Myanmar in the Bay of Bengal region.
The conference also featured findings from Oxfam's policy paper, which reported that the richest 10 percent in Asia command 60 to 77 percent of national income, while the bottom 50 percent receive only 12 to 15 percent. Across Asia-Pacific, over 2.1 billion people reside in countries spending more on public debt servicing than on either health or education, and approximately 46.4 percent—around 2.1 billion people—remain completely uncovered by social safety nets.
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