Published in Dhaka Tribune on Tuesday, 7 January 2014.
‘Bangladesh missing global economic opportunities for political instability’
Kayes Sohel
‘Political instability has compelled the country to miss out scores of global economic opportunities,’ says Mirza Azizul Islam, former finance adviser
Perennial political conflicts had caused Bangladesh to miss out on many global economic opportunities despite much achievement made since independence, economists have said.
Although achievements were made in gaining self-sufficiency in food and reducing poverty, the failure in leadership, lack of good governance, confrontational politics, weak infrastructure and energy shortage have held back faster growth, they said.
“Political instability has compelled the country to miss out scores of global economic opportunities,” said Mirza Azizul Islam, former finance adviser to the caretaker government.
He however admitted that the country had also developed a lot after independence, as the poverty rate had come down to around 30% – which was 75%-76% during the period of independence – while the country also attained food autarky.
Over the last several years, the GDP growth rate remained flat hovering around 6%, which was relatively better economic performance than other Asian countries including Cambodia, Vietnam, India and Sri Lanka, he said.
“But what we have achieved since independence, is much lower than the opportunities we have missed because of political instability,” said Azizul Islam.
He blamed leadership failure, feuding politics, weak infrastructure and energy scarcity for restraining the country from faster growth. The potential negative impact of the recent violent protests was disturbing because the country’s economy was already on a downhill path, he added.
Centre for Policy Dialogue Executive Director Prof Mustafizur Rahman said confrontational politics had caused Bangladesh to lose many windows of global economic opportunities. Since independence, the country however had gained many things like poverty reduction, attaining many indicators set in the MDG and above all becoming a trading nation, he said.
Despite making the gains, Mustafizur cautioned that matters of concerns for the country included the lack of good governance, social inequality, quality education and corruption.
“We need to address these issues to move forward faster,” he said.
The World Bank in its reports said Bangladesh was well on its way to achieve the United Nations Millennium Development Goal (MDG) in poverty alleviation within this year. The report, based on purchasing ability, said the incidence of poverty came down gradually during the last decade from 63 million poor people in 2000 to 47 million in 2010.
The target under the MDG was to bring poverty rate down to 29.5% within 2015 from current 31%.
Professor of finance at the Dhaka University MA Taslim said investment was moving out of China as the world’s second largest economy was opting to manufacture high-end products. As a result, opportunities have opened up for countries like Bangladesh, he said.
However, economists have said Bangladesh’s economy was now facing severe challenges caused the by the ongoing politic impasse. The fulfillment of growth targets set in the sixth Five-Year Plan and the ambition to achieve middle-income status by 2021 were fading into distant dreams, they said.
They prescribed that a quick exit from the present quagmire demanded an immediate consensus among the major political parties about the nature of election-time government that could ensure a free, fair and credible election with widest possible participation.