As a country's GDP growth rate rises, development is likely to be concentrated in certain geographical regions, urban areas and growth centres. This phenomenon is common to most countries when they make faster socio-economic progress. Therefore, how the overall prosperity brings with it regional inequalities is a subject that is studied in many countries with lot of interest due to its policy implications. But in Bangladesh, not much research has been done on this.

One study conducted recently by the Institute for Planning and Development (IPD), titled "Spatial Configuration of ADP from National Budget in Terms of Sectors and Districts," demonstrated some disparity in public investment between urban and rural areas. The study shows that, in FY 2021-22, about 63 percent of the housing and community services allocation from the Annual Development Programme (ADP) budget went to three major metropolises: Dhaka, Chattogram, and Gazipur. Dhaka received the highest allocation, which was 37.24 percent, Chattogram 17.40 percent, Gazipur 8.14 percent, Rajshahi five percent, Khulna 3.35 percent, Narayanganj 2.76 percent, and Cox's Bazar 2.41 percent. Several districts received as low as 0.20 percent of the housing and community services allocation from the ADP budget, such as Jhenaidah, Satkhira, Thakurgaon, Dinajpur, Kurigram, and Barguna. 

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Rising inequality is holding back our progress

Over the last several decades, Dhaka and Chattogram cities have been growing at a disproportionately higher rate, requiring formidable government investment to sustain their infrastructure needs. Dhaka, Chattogram, Rajshahi and Khulna – these four cities accommodate about 60 percent of the country's total urban population. This large urban concentration is a kind of a spatial imbalance within the country. Article 19(2) of our constitution mentions that the state shall adopt effective measures to remove social and economic inequalities and attain a uniform level of economic development throughout the republic. This vision of achieving both economic and physical equalities is a common objective in both developed and developing countries, and therefore, this is an important area that should get the attention of our researchers and policymakers.

Spatial inequality arises due to unequal distribution of income, wealth, health services, educational facilities, etc across geographical regions. This may be the result of local differences in investment in infrastructure, as well as natural endowment, geographical features and economies of agglomeration. Socio-economic inequality remains central to public policy discussions in Bangladesh, but not so much on spatial inequality yet.

Geographic inequalities can bring political tensions between local government leaders and national level policymakers and politicians. A big chunk of parliamentary debate time is consumed in discussions around demands from the MPs for health and educational services, roads and other infrastructure, which arises from a perception of regional disparities – among districts and upazilas, regions, urban areas, industrial centres, and among more advanced rural and backward areas. Higher amounts of budgetary allocation are made for certain regions, in some urban areas more than others, owing to the influence of powerful and more articulate politicians. 

Over time, these influences have resulted in better services and facilities in some areas compared to others. As much as the government wants a more balanced regional development, by constructing new bridges, roads, ports, export processing zones etc, the sheer weight of already developed urban centres, trading areas and industrial zones that receive not only higher public investment, but more private investment too, has resulted in the spatial inequality to continue. 

Without deliberate actions from planners and policymakers, spatial inequality is likely to get worse, since economic growth is an unstoppable process. Systematic evidence from a growing body of research work in various countries in Asia, Europe, Africa and Latin America proves that rapid economic growth is associated with uneven regional and urban development.

While the positive relationship between development and regional disparity is apparent, there is a lack of consensus on the causes of spatial inequality and what measures the policymakers should take to tackle the growing spatial inequalities. A background study paper for the Seventh Five-Year Plan, titled "Lagging Districts Development," mentions the existence of regional disparity between the eastern and western districts of the country in general. The eastern region includes Dhaka, Chattogram and Sylhet divisions, whereas the western region constitutes Rajshahi, Rangpur, Khulna and Barishal divisions. 

The factors that underpin faster growth in the eastern region are thought to be better infrastructure, a higher level of public resource allocations, access to energy and natural resources, concentration of entrepreneurship, skilled labour force, industrialisation, urbanisation, access to finance, and favourable geographical locations. However, a closer look at data reveals that there are certain lagging areas within the eastern region and some promising places in the western region. We know that poverty is bad in the haor areas in the northeast region, chars of Noakhali, and some areas in the north-central.

On the other hand, the increased agricultural production, greater concentration of micro-credit activities, and growing small and medium enterprises in the western region have reduced the disparity to some extent. The newly built transport infrastructure in the western region, including the Padma Bridge, has opened up economic opportunities for the future.

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Invest in education to reduce inequality

Reducing spatial inequality should be a critical objective of the government's development initiative under its "inclusive economic growth" policy in the Eighth Five-Year Plan. The plan calls for building equal opportunities for the citizens. The factors that create inequality should thus be addressed. The government needs to work on narrowing the infrastructure gaps, building human capital, promoting financial inclusion, expanding social protection programmes, improving the quality of primary health and nutrition, ensuring effective decentralisation, and encouraging participatory local government systems.

There are over 500 urban centres in Bangladesh with varying sizes, and these have very important roles in promoting growth and development in the country. Therefore, more equitable distribution of public resources should be ensured to these centres to have more balanced urbanisation in the country.

Dr Nawshad Ahmed, a former UN official, is an economist and urban planner.