The New Nation - Internet Edition

ACCORDING to the latest Asian Development Bank release revealed recently, almost 50 per cent Bangladesh's population now live on less than $ 1.25 a day - a yardstick of measuring 'extreme poverty level' in global standard. Bangladesh is just above Nepal among 20 nations of the Asia-Pacific region where over 10 per cent of the populations live on $ 1.25 per day. The present poverty situation in Bangladesh brings bad news for the government's poverty eradication drive as the party in power in its election manifesto promised reducing the poverty level to 25 per cent and the size of ultra poor to 15 per cent by 2013.

The ADB 'Key Indicators 2009'report has rated Bangladesh fourth from below in the ranking above Afghanistan, Nepal and Timor. In 'digital divide' among the Asian nations, Bangladesh is one of the most backward countries where far less than 10 per cent of the populations have access to internet. Hardly one per cent of the citizens currently have access to internet, said the ADB release reflecting the key economic and social development indicators. The rate of urban households living without access to improved sanitation is about 52 per cent in Bangladesh, the fourth worst performer, followed by India with close to 50 per cent population having no access to improved sanitation.

Bangladesh is not in the list of 16 countries which attracted foreign direct investment worth over $1 billion per year between 2006 and 2008. The country is also not in the list of 'culprits' numbering 11 countries that emit huge quantity of greenhouse gases contributing to global warming. Emission of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide in 2005 was more than 7 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent by China, almost 2.5 billion tonnes by India and about 1.5 billion tonnes by Japan.