"The sector maintained its competitiveness amid political unrest even after the phase-out of MFA, but if conflicts in the RMG sector spread out, it is a red alert for the economy," the economist told reporters coming out of a workshop at the World Bank office in the capital.

The World Bank organised a two-day workshop titled 'Towards a Strategy for Achieving the Millennium Development Goals Outcomes in Bangladesh.'

The government and the opposition political parties must have consensus on some crucial economic issues including export-oriented industries, proficiency of Chittagong port and investment environment in the country, he suggested.

Wahiduddin said, "Chittagong port must not be allowed to be unskilled. It should be kept out of all political confrontations,"

It will also be hard to improve the present GDP growth unless governance is improved and corruption checked, the Dhaka University professor said, adding that the country's economy is now experiencing a volatile situation for the price hike of petroleum commodities and power shortage.

Chairing a session he said remarkable progress was made in many aspects of the MDGs as a result of female empowerment, micro-credit programmes and awareness building in some areas of the country, while it remained underdeveloped in some other areas due to religious conservativeness, lack of female employment awareness.

Country Representative of DFID David Wood said Bangladesh has made remarkable achievements in the areas of life expectancy, children's enrolment rate and water and sanitation.

He, however, said Bangladesh is unlikely to achieve its MDG targets for child malnutrition by 2015. About half of Bangladeshi children below five years are moderately underweight and stunted, he added.

Maternal mortality in the country remains unacceptably high at 320 deaths per 100,000 births, he said.

"I have concerns about the future increase in prevalence of HIV in Bangladesh-- recent surveillance showed 8.9 in one group in Dhaka. Unless efforts are increased, we risk a generalised epidemic in Bangladesh with potentially devastating consequences."

Most seriously, the education system is failing, and millions of Bangladeshis, particularly the less well-off, are either uneducated or poorly educated.

United Nations Resident Coordinator Renata Lok Dessallien, Florent Agueh of World Bank, Dr Quazi Mesbahuddin Ahmed of Planning Commission also spoke at the opening session of the workshop.