Regional development planning and disparity in Bangladesh

Abstract

This study sheds some light on the regional development planning and regional disparity in Bangladesh and also analyzes spatial disparity of development through several factors to picturize the poverty situation in different regions of the country. In fact, this paper tries to represent the scenario of planning in micro-regional level. Findings from the paper reveal that, some regions of Bangladesh are still underdeveloped because of the fact that they continuously receive marginal share of public expenditure and national budget of the country. Gini Index for the total budget shows an incompatible level of income inequality to the people across various regions in Bangladesh. Northern and West regions of the country are mostly deprived of proper development planning and allocation of efficient budget. Overall, this article deeply provides a briefing for field people involved in regional planning processes in the rural areas. Bangladesh is yet to decentralize empirical power to the local government authority to ensure proper budget allocation and distribution. Allocation in ADP for health, education and agriculture sector should be enhanced urgently. Generating regional data will be much effective to fabricate more dynamic development planning and to understand the current situations of the lack-lusture regions of the country. Key Words: Bangladesh, Development, Planning, Budget, Expenditure, Regions, Poverty