The year 2007 has been an exceptionally difficult year for Bangladesh. To successive rounds of floods and a devastating cyclone afflicted Bangladesh during the year putting the economy of Bangladesh under severe strain. The cyclone Sidr of November, 2007 alone led to the death of over 3,000 people, and the economy of Bangladesh suffered a colossal loss in terms of major destruction of homes and hearths of people, infrastructure and an entire crop. Yet the people of Bangladesh will be celebrating the 37th Independence Day of their young country with renewed hope and optimism for many reasons some of which may fundamentally affect their future.

Comprehensive Disaster Management

The devastations of the floods and cyclones in Bangladesh last year once again proved the resilience of the people of Bangladesh. It has also demonstrated that the disaster management system that Bangladesh has developed over the years is capable of coping with disasters and natural calamities of great magnitudes, which might not have been the case even two to three decades back. The type of problems faced by Bangladesh specially the threat to food security in such a populous country as a result of natural disasters have shown the precise nature of intervention that a government and the people at the community level need to make to deal with the consequences of such disasters. The crisis faced by Bangladesh showed as well the critical importance of rehabilitating the agricultural sector as a matter of priority and also to significantly accelerate growth in it, the importance of which is often forgotten in an age of high penchant for rapid industrial growth and development. Bangladesh has learnt an important lesson from the disasters and crisis in the year 2007. Concrete plans and programmes are now afoot to accelerate growth and development in the agricultural sector. Positive fall out from these plans and programmes, it is hoped, will help the people of Bangladesh and look forward to the future with hope.

Economic Stability Ensured

Another reason for hope for the people of Bangladesh is that, the devastations wrought by the floods and cyclones notwithstanding, the fundamentals of the Bangladesh economy remain sound. The government has taken a series of measures to ensure the macro-economic stability in the country without injecting any element of uncertainty that might discourage investment and new entrepreneurial initiatives. In fact, the main thrust of the government’s various initiative has been to assure the business community and prospective investors from home and abroad who are interested to invest in Bangladesh. This no doubt augurs well for the future of Bangladesh. The government has also taken several steps to ensure transparency in business deals and reduce the cost of business. Steps taken to improve the functioning of Chittagong port—the main port of the country—have significantly contributed to the speeding up of cargo handling with prospects for further improvements in the months ahead. Initiatives are also on to develop the country’s communication infrastructure and power generation capacity. All these positive things are happening when the financial sector in Bangladesh especially the modern banking and insurance facilities are firmly in place. The country has already started benefiting from the various initiatives now being implemented. During the last Financial Year, Bangladesh experienced a healthy growth in the manufacturing sector, and exports of industrial and manufactured products increased by 17.43 percent. If this trend can be sustained, the economy of Bangladesh will certainly be able to continue on a steady upward trajectory which will help her to plan with confidence for further future growth.

Social Goals

There has been no let up in the efforts in Bangladesh to reduce poverty significantly. In fact, attempts are being made to ensure essential funding and much-needed organisational interventions needed to ensure the sustainability and impact of the country’s poverty eradication efforts. This also makes Bangladesh to look ahead with optimism and hope especially as the efforts in this area directly relate to the vast majority of the people of Bangladesh. Bangladesh has already earned the distinction of achieving a major decline in population growth rate, which now stands at 1.7 percent per annum. The progress towards the achievement of the relevant MDG targets in the critical health and education sectors continues. Child mortality in the country was halved during the 1990s and efforts are now on to improve the situation further in this area. Net enrolment in the primary schools remains impressive and so is women empowerment and participation in the monetised economic activities. Bangladesh is one of the very few countries where gender parity has been achieved for male and female students in the educational institutions especially in the primary and the secondary level. A comprehensive plan is now also being implemented to provide safe drinking water and sanitation for all in the immediate near future. The success of timely initiatives in all these areas will definitely enable Bangladesh to affect a qualitative improvement in the lives of millions who for the first time can be hopeful that they will not be left out from the development process within the country.

Good Governance

Fundamental and more exciting changes have taken place in other areas as well which may hold out great hopes for the people of Bangladesh. During the last one year, several key decisions have been taken to improve the system of governance in Bangladesh. The judiciary has finally been separated from the administrative wing of the government, an independent Anti-Corruption Commission has started functioning, the country’s Public Service Commission has been reconstituted, and a Right to Information Act is now being finalised. All these reform measures have the potential to qualitatively improve the system of governance in Bangladesh. But, at the same time, equally important initiatives have been taken to ensure that the planned general election in Bangladesh takes place in the most free and fair manner possible. The country’s Election Commission has been totally reconstituted, and the preparation of a photo-ID based computerised electoral roll is now at a fairly advanced stage. Dialogues have also been initiated with all concerned for electoral reforms and preparation of model electoral guidelines. There is broad-based hopes and expectations that successful implementation of various initiatives in these key areas will create conditions for functioning of an enduring people-oriented democratic process in Bangladesh, which will underwrite the country’s future peace, prosperity and stability.

Watershed Year

As Bangladesh celebrates her 37th Independence Day this year, the people of Bangladesh naturally do so with renewed hopes. The natural calamities of the year 2007 certainly caused major dislocations and hardship. However, the prospect for acceleration of country’s growth and development remains bright. The hope of the people of Bangladesh on the occasion of the Independence Day this year is that the year 2008 will be a major watershed in the history of Bangladesh. Both politically and economically, exciting developments await them during the year. They hope that changes in both these vital areas will be overwhelmingly positive in nature. These changes, they hope, will make important contribution to major gains in poverty eradication, economic and social welfare of the vast majority of Bangladesh’s teeming millions, greater vibrancy and dynamism of the Bangladesh economy, introduction of exacting standards of accountability, and above all an all-inclusive tolerant system of good governance.