Ideas for the Development of Bangladesh

By Seema Khan, Give2Asia Finance Associate

Last month I attended a conference on "Ideas & Innovations for Development of Bangladesh: The Next Decade." The conference, organized by the Bangladesh Development Initiative (BDI) in partnership with Democracy & Development in Bangladesh Forum (DDBF) and the Ash Institute at Harvard Kennedy School, created a platform for discussion of development in Bangladesh from many different angles. The speakers and participants, attending from all over America and overseas as well, discussed development issues relating to governance, human infrastructure, investment, energy and the environment, and media.
 

Speakers, heavily invested in the future of Bangladesh, kicked off the event. Among them was Iqbal Quadir, founder and director of the Legatum Center for Development & Entrepreneurship at MIT and founder of GonoPhone, an organization that increased mobile phone usage in Bangladesh 100 fold since its inception in 1994. Quadir’s thought-provoking speech set an optimistic tone for the conference. He suggested that there is a connection between centralization of activity with stagnation in growth and decentralization with progress. His major example of this was the fact that so many developing countries have a high concentration of activity in their capital cities, while neglecting their large rural areas, a fact that is true of Bangladesh.  By utilizing the human capital throughout the countries, he suggests that developing countries would be tapping a major resource for growth.  Quadir also makes the assertion that connectivity is productivity, noting the increase in productivity through connectivity tools such as cell phones and the internet. This central productivity through connectivity idea was revisited often throughout the 2-day event.
 
A pressing issue and hot topic during the conference is energy in Bangladesh. Bangladesh currently has the lowest per capita energy consumption. With power outages scheduled every day in the capital and lasting several hours, the shortage in the power supply is clear. Additionally, 67% of the country’s energy is used just in Dhaka city, which leaves many areas with no electricity. One speaker tells a story of how providing electricity to a tailor was able to increase his work day by 4 hours into the evening. A stable supply of power distributed throughout the country would allow Bangladesh to make better use of its rural work force and create more steady work days for people throughout the country.
 
Another interesting topic was the idea of branding for Bangladesh. To develop a positive brand image for Bangladesh could promote tourism and trade for the country. Currently, 90% of Bangladesh-related news published internationally is generated by sources in India and China. It was suggested at the conference that Bangladesh take control of its image by publishing more of its press abroad. Releasing news would also give Bangladesh the opportunity to create its brand. Several branding ideas were suggested, including the idea to highlight Bangladesh as the birthplace of microcredit, a major force throughout the developing world to combat poverty. Also, Bangladesh’s activity in the garment industry competes with other major garment producers throughout the world. As Bangladesh continues to develop, there are an increasing number of positive attributes to consider as the country’s brand.
 
The conference had an overwhelmingly positive outlook on development and was a forum of great fresh ideas. Now having completed its second annual meeting, I look forward to the ways this platform for an exchange will benefit Bangladesh’s development.

Comments

[M.AKRAM KHAN NIAZI]

Advantages of Creation of Bangladesh to Pakistan.

M.Akram Khan, Pakistan

Usually smaller Parts of a country having extraordinary resources tries to break away from the mainland to take the maximum advantage of their resources for their advantage, and to protect themselves from the drain of their resources to majority or dominant section of the country, but in case of Pakistan Majority Part on the basis of population, which was also having scare resources, separated from the other part,Generally,it is regarded as an unfortunate event for Pakistan by people of Pakistan, and no Pakistani tries to see other side of the coin of that event for analysis of the benefits achieved to them by this event

The reason of this is that all literature about that event has been written by those who were living in East Pakistan and they suffered personally by this event, due to which they always indicate their miseries and losses and forget to explain the advantages of that event to whole Pakistani Nation.Therefore, it is necessary to see the real results of this event. With the separation of East Pakistan, following advantages were achieved to Pakistan.

1.Economical

•Separation of Bangladesh was as much beneficial for Pakistan as separation of Pakistan from India.

•As the part of world in which East Pakistan was situated, was having limited resources, and many poor areas of subcontinent are situated in that part, such as Bihar and Assam and West Bengal, Burma and Bhuttan.Technically it was not in the interest of Pakistan, to keep itself attached with East Bengal(Historically one of the most poorest area of subcontinent) .Infact Pakistan after separation saved its future from economic burden of poverty ridden Bangladesh,

• Huge Population and scare resources of East Bengal were clear Indicators, that there will be no extraordinary progress in future in that province and no sensible person may think that it was valuable for Pakistan to keep itself attached with most poverty ridden part of this region.

•Being a part of East Pakistan, rulers were forcing to West Pakistani citizens to become a market of East Pakistan’s low quality Products, such as Tea, Pans and jute on artificial high prices on the name of Patriotism, while now such type high quality Products may be purchased from other countries on very low prices.

•After separation of Bangladesh, it was possible for Pakistan to make its economic policies without having any concern of interests of a far situated part.

•Pakistan Economic Managers relieved themselves from the Economic restrictions due to economic interest of East Bengal. That situation was as much harmful, as today Pakistan start to take care of the economic interest of Myanmar or West Bengal; it is certain that such type situation will be disastrous for Pakistan.

•With the analysis of economic situation of present day Pakistan and Bangladesh, shows that Pakistan GDP and Foreign currency reserves are double than that of Bangladesh and Electricity production is also 5 times more It is obvious, that separation was much more in the interest of Pakistan, Because, the only solution of the Disparity between two parts, was to serve the Bangladesh with the resources of West Pakistan. Otherwise there was no other magic solution to finish that disparity.

•It is still obvious that, there is still no charm in having trade links with countries of South Asia, because it is not in the economic interest of Pakistan, instead of that we should focus on rich and developed areas such as China, Middle East, Far East, Europe and USA.

2.Political Advantages.

•Due to extraordinary majority of Bengali Population, it was not possible for any province of West Pakistan to become equivalent to that majority any time in future, and it was certain that representatives of Provinces of West Pakistan will always remain in opposition in assemblies as per modern time democracy principles, this was really a frightening situation and the People of Pakistan were going to be ruled by any ethnocentric Bengali Leader or by any Bengali Military dictator for ever.

•Due to Bengali nationalism and ethnocentrism, on the basis of which People of Bangladesh were victimizing the Urdu Speaking Muslim refugees from India and that is still continue, and their Ethnic Cleansing with aborigines people of CHT, were clearly indicating that people of that area were not sincere and aware of the Ideology of Pakistan, infact attachment of Pakistan with East Bengal was self deception and nothing else.

•Due to agitation style and different culture, the politicians of East Pakistan were always blaming Pakistan for their problems and exploitations, while people of Pakistan were worried about deteriorating condition of people of East Pakistan due to poverty and natural disasters, and they were too much fed up with that situation as they were seeing no end of all this, as this thing was also harming the Basic Ideology of Pakistan, and therefore to get rid of this situation and to avoid baseless allegations it was necessary to separate that area(East Bengal) from Pakistan, and this was the main reason that West Pakistani Military Personnel, even having capability for defending that part decided very easily and conveniently to end their any relation with that land on the basis of the facts that they were tired of all those messy affairs.

• Due to separation of East Pakistan, Pakistan saved itself and its ideology from baseless criticism of Bengalese Politicians, and now on real grounds they are blaming each other for their problems.

•With the separation of Bangladesh, Pakistan Islamic Ideology became more prominent with the introduction of Islamic laws and future scenario of Pakistan became much more firmed with the conversion of population ratio to 98 % Muslims, while with Bangladesh, presence of Huge Hindu minority was having adverse effects on the ideological progress of the country.

Security Advantages:

As East Pakistan was situated in the abdomen and inside the body of India and thousand miles away from West Pakistan, India was using that fact for blackmailing and pressurizing Pakistan from the beginning, In fact burden of huge population of East Bengal was loaded on West Pakistan to make Pakistan a crippled and failed state by Indian National Congress. India used that part as a button for keeping under pressure to Pakistan in 1947, in war of 1965 and again in 1970 with policy to occupy large chunk of land in East Pakistan. Due to 1000 miles distance between both parts and that also filled by enemy land, in such worst scenario even maintaining contacts between security forces and their mobility was in fact a difficult, expensive and life taking task, accompanied with wastage of huge resources, ultimately resulting in weakening of Defense forces and economy of the country. By separation of East Bengal, Pakistan was able to get rid of its weak point which was a most easy and favorite target of India. Due to that now Pakistan Defense is more strong and protected as compared to vulnerable and weak position before 1971.

Social Advantages:

•With the separation of Bengal flow of population from densely populated Bangladesh to parts of West Pakistan stopped, which was a good development for the culture and social set up of West Pakistan.

•Due to two national languages, Cutural evolution of the people of West Pakistan was stopped and their local languages were dying, with the separation of Bangladesh, that process was stopped.

•After separation of Bangladesh huge jobs opportunities were raised for people of different provinces of West Pakistan in both Federal and Provincial Governments. Due to elimination of share of people of Bengalese in civilian Jobs, which resulted in an increase in participation of local population in the affairs of country, by this their sense of depriving was minimized.

•People of Bengal are usually dark skinned, while people of West Pakistan were of Fair Skinned, due to continuous flow of Bengalese from East Bengal was creating racial discomfort and fears in the mind of local populations, that by this they will become minority in their own provinces, specially in the case when Federal Government was encouraging Bengalese to rehabilitate in West Pakistan, By separation of East Bengal this process of migration was also stopped.

It is crystal clear from all above mentioned facts that separation from Problematic East Bengal created new life and new freedom in Pakistan.

Written By M.Akram Khan.
Karachi,Pakistan
E.Mail :akrumniazi@hotmail.com
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