STRENGTHS

When you look back at the 37 years since independence what is the sense of achievement you would share with us? In what all areas Bangladesh made tremendous progress? What are the main strengths of the country and challenges too?

I thank you for your question. In response to it, let me recall the circumstances in which Bangladesh emerged as an independent country in 1971. In fact, when Bangladesh became independent, we inherited a war-ravaged country and all sectors of our economy were in ruins. The difficulties faced by the people of Bangladesh were unprecedented. It goes to their credit that through their hard work and dedication they were able to overcome the economic difficulties encountered by Bangladesh in those early days. From then on, our progress in various walks of national life has been impressive. Our food-grain production has increased many folds, and we are able now to take care of the nutritional requirements of our people. The extent of our achievement in this regard can be better appreciated looking from the fact that in 1971 the population of Bangladesh was 70 million whereas today it is almost 150 million. Natural calamities like the floods and cyclones that recently struck Bangladesh naturally pose a great threat to food security in Bangladesh. But we are hopeful that through comprehensive planning and redoubled efforts we shall be able to address this challenge.

Our achievement in reducing poverty in Bangladesh has not been insignificant. On the contrary, by encouraging an inclusive development process, we have been able to consistently reduce hardcore poverty in Bangladesh during the last two and half decades. All the economic indicators confirm this, and the percentage of absolutely poor in Bangladesh today are much lower than anytime before since the independence. All the social indicators also speak volumes about Bangladesh’s recent achievement. Infant and maternal mortalities have declined, overall literacy in Bangladesh has increased, Bangladesh has achieved gender parity in enrolment in educational institutions in primary and secondary level, efforts to ensure universal immunisation for children and mother have been successful, provision of safe drinking water for majority of the Bangladeshis is no longer a distant dream, and above all in Bangladesh the social safety nets are being extended to take care of the old, the disabled and other vulnerable segments of the society.

The capacity of Bangladesh to deal with natural disasters have been significantly up-scaled and the efficacy of our disaster management system has been proved time and again including at the time of recent floods and cyclones. During the natural calamities that struck Bangladesh in 2007, thanks to a well organised system for timely dissemination of pre-disaster information/warning, movement of population under threat to safer shelters and post-disaster relief and rehabilitation, the number of deaths from such disasters could be kept to the minimum and help and succour were rushed to the survivors with remarkable efficiency. We are happy that our disaster management system worked well even under tremendous strain and pressure.

Bangladesh can also be genuinely proud of her recent strides in the industrial and services sector, which, 37 years after independence, today contribute a major part of the country’s GDP. Our garments and textiles sector have done remarkably well contributing handsomely to the increase in the country’s export earnings and generating employment opportunities especially for the women. Our leather, pharmaceutical and ceramic industries have also done well, and the production base of Bangladesh economy can now also boast of small and medium enterprises contributing more and more to the country’s GDP through enhanced production of manufactured and semi-manufactured goods. Recent trends also show that Bangladeshi entrepreneurs and their external partners can hope to do well in such new areas as shipbuilding, information technology, agro-based products etc. A stable macro-economic policy framework of the government and investment friendly environment has facilitated all these.

These achievements of Bangladesh, notwithstanding, we certainly continue to face a number of major challenges. Bangladesh needs to improve her overall growth performance to make the process of poverty reduction irreversible. Generation of domestic investment surplus will be critical for this. Ensuring long-term food security of the country remains a major challenge. Our infrastructure especially in the power generation sector and energy is also a formidable one. In many ways, the education system in Bangladesh also need to be improved to be able to provide quality education in Bangladesh and equip the people of Bangladesh to be able to cope up with their economic challenges. Bangladesh needs also to take ecological challenges facing her with all seriousness.

BILATERAL

What is the current status of relations between India and Bangladesh? Which are the areas in which the countries are working together and what are the latest bilateral trade figures? Can you please also tell us something about the main thrust of the economic policies of Bangladesh?

In one sentence, I would like to say that our relations with India remain important, multifaceted and full of great potentials for further improvement. Our two countries have remained engaged at all levels in trying to address issues on which we have common stake. Our leaders at the highest level have been in touch, and also at the official level we have a healthy tradition of meeting regularly to promote cooperation on a whole range of issues. Our Home Secretaries have recently met and so did the heads of our border security forces. Our Water Resources and Civil Aviation Secretaries are also in touch to carry forward cooperation between the two countries on issues falling under their purview. Both Bangladesh and India have also remained engaged to see how trade and economic relations between our two countries can be promoted further. You should not be surprised to know that Bangladesh is the most important SAARC trading partner of India with India’s export to Bangladesh crossing well over US$ 2.6 billion last year and our export to India was worth about US$ 250 million. The large trade imbalance between our two countries notwithstanding, these figures alone indicates how our two countries are economically closely interlinked. We in Bangladesh are all for promoting economic cooperation, trade and commerce between our two countries, for we realise that enhanced economic relations can benefit only our two countries. We see no reason why India as our closest neighbour should not benefit from her robust economic relations with Bangladesh but we also hope that the prosperity and fast growth in India should also open up opportunities for countries like Bangladesh in terms of increased Bangladeshi export to India. I am sure in the years ahead both our countries will experience a healthy growth in their two-way trade and growth-oriented investment.

To respond to the second part of your question, I may add this briefly. Liberalisation and economic reform in Bangladesh were initiated much before India and they are now fairly advanced. Our tariff rates have been rationalised and reviewed significantly, and Bangladesh has one of the most investment friendly FDI regime in the whole region. Recently, the government has also introduced a whole series of reform measures to revitalise the stock market in Bangladesh, reduce the cost of business and increase transparency in the decision-making process. The number of Export Processing Zones in Bangladesh has been increased and there are plans for creating more special economic zones to promote FDI. Compared to many other Asian countries, FDI to Bangladesh may not be very high now but we are hopeful that given Bangladesh’s immense potential as an investment destination, this would change in future. The signs are already there that the international economic community is increasingly becoming aware of Bangladesh’s long-term economic prospects. A recent study by the Goldman Sachs has included Bangladesh among the 30 most promising economies of the world.

REGIONAL BLOCS

How do you view the emergence of SAARC and BIMSTEC? Can they be beneficial for the countries in our region? How do you look at India’s impressive economic growth and do you think that this would help countries like Bangladesh?

The regional economic blocs are playing a major role in promoting trade and economic interaction in different parts of the world. We in Bangladesh certainly believe that regional cooperation in South Asia has immense potential not only in terms of its contribution towards harnessing resources of our countries but also towards the creation of a wider economic space where all our countries can work together and reap the benefit of greater economic interaction and flow of trade and investment. Bangladesh has, therefore, been in the forefront of all efforts to institutionalise regional cooperation among the countries of South Asia and countries in our immediate neighbourhood. Bangladesh was at the forefront of initiating the SAARC process and subsequently we were deeply involved in bringing together the members of BIMSTEC, which has also emerged as a major instrument for promotion of regional cooperation. Both these fora have identified cooperation in the core economic areas as an important goal worth pursuing. Within the SAARC framework, the work on SAFTA has entered a new and important phase. Intra-SAARC trade till now remains an insignificant part of our total trade volume. However, we feel that with SAFTA in place, trade among the member countries will pick up. What we need to do this happen is a firm commitment on our part to live up to the SAFTA provisions and invest all our energy to remove all non-tariff barriers, which may still be there to stymie greater economic cooperation among our countries. Taken together our region has a huge market and I am hopeful that accelerated intra-SAARC and intra-BIMSTEC cooperation will benefit all our countries.

On how we view the impressive economic growth of India during the recent years, I would only repeat what I am very fond of saying. We in Bangladesh admire the phenomenal growth in the Indian economy and we are of the view that a prosperous India can contribute a lot to the process of ensuring sustained growth and development in our entire region. An economically strong and fast developing India can be a real source of strength and economic dynamism for all our countries. India with vast market potential is attractive not only for world’s major economic powers but also for India’s immediate neighbours as well. As our economies have many things to offer in terms of trade and investment to India, we believe that a stronger and rapidly developing India also will have many things to offer to us. Access to the Indian market for products we export will certainly help us and so will trade and growth-oriented Indian investment in our countries. An economically stronger India can also take a lead role in the fruition of joint economic ventures with significant economic potential. The synergy that can be derived from such ventures can be immense and I see no reason why we should not take advantage of it. Bangladesh would definitely look forward to greater economic engagement with a growing and prospering India so that cooperation between our two countries results in tangible benefits, which would help our people and two countries.

PEOPLE-TO-PEOPLE CONTACT

Don’t you think that greater people-to-people contact should be playing a major role in further developing the friendship between India and Bangladesh? Would you like to share your ideas with us on this important point?

I am glad that you have asked me this question. Inter-governmental exchanges and engagements are vitally needed to carry forward our relationships in a positive direction. This certainly does not mean that greater contacts at the people-to-people level are not important. On the contrary, both of these can be mutually reinforcing. In case of India and Bangladesh, this is even truer. The relationship and bonds of friendship are millennial and we have so many things in common—culturally speaking. The affinity that we feel about our friends in India and that you feel about us is something remarkable. I firmly believe that through greater people-to-people contact, we must further strengthen this sense of affinity. Frequent visits, cultural exchanges and intermingling at all levels are to be expected as something very natural for our people and two countries. We in Bangladesh are very keen to promote such visits and cultural exchanges. I have no doubt that India will also do the same.

Before I conclude, I would like to stress one point here. The Bangladesh view of life is one of universal liberalism, moderation and one that values humanism above anything else. Extremism is a thing abhorred by the people of Bangladesh and time and again we have proved our opposition to any form of extremism be it within the confines of Bangladesh or elsewhere. We also remain deeply committed to a democratic way of life—as a preferred choice for us. Here too, I think, the people of India and Bangladesh are very close indeed and the more we interact at all levels these common values, I am sure, will show us the direction which we must follow for our common good.

I thank you.