Bangladesh 'lifts 13 mln from poverty': AFP

World Bank sponsored survey tells a progressive story of Bangladesh. Bangladesh lifted 13 million people out of poverty in the five years to 2010, pushing the poverty rate in the South Asian country down to 31.5 percent, the government said Wednesday.

Only way we can continue this progress if our political parties stop personal vendata against each other and focus on development issues in Bangladesh. Calling hartal "strike" because of personal issues will not put Bangladesh in the middle class country in the world map, it will just take us back.

"It's one of fastest paces of poverty decline in the country's history and has been driven by a boom in remittances, welfare spending, exports and the huge growth of non-farm sectors in the rural areas," he told AFP.

"This is an impressive achievement by any standard," said Sanjay Kathuria, World Bank Country Office acting head.

In the survey, "poor" was classified as someone unable to buy food that provides 2,122 kilocalories of nutrition per day.

Remittances shot up to $11 billion in 2010 from $4.8 billion in 2005 while exports nearly doubled in the same period, Alam said, adding the government had boosted social welfare spending by 53 percent to $2.5 billion.

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