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‘Bangladesh is aid independent’

The Ronin

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'Bangladesh has already started to dictate the donor agencies, as the country is building the Padma Bridge with its own fund by saying ‘thank you’ to the World Bank, that’s a tremendous signal'

Bangladesh is not an aid-dependent country anymore and it has already started dictating the donor agencies, speakers said at a seminar on Wednesday.

They also emphasized that Bangladesh should transform its aids from grants to concessional loans through building partnership with the foreign parts.

Speakers came up with the remarks at a seminar titled, “Development Partnerships in Middle Income Countries”, held at Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) seminar hall.

BIDS Senior Fellow Dr Syed Sajjadur Rahman, who is also a faculty-member at International Development and Global Studies department under Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Ottawa, Canada presented the keynote paper in the event.

Rahman, in his paper, said: “Bangladesh has to identify the process on how its’ development will take place and it has to take the lead, while the foreign partners will be there as the development partners.”

“In the previous time, the foreign donors dictated Bangladesh and now, the situation has started to reverse,” Rahman told the Dhaka Tribune while talking to this correspondent after the seminar.

He said: “Bangladesh has already started to dictate the donor agencies, as the country is building the Padma Bridge with its own fund by saying ‘thank you’ to the World Bank, that’s a tremendous signal.”

In his paper, Rahman highlighted on middle income trap and gave a series of prescription for Bangladesh in a bid to overcome the trouble.

He emphasized on accelerating economic growth especially by creating employment-intensive growth, promoting social inclusion like delivering social services – building institutions and strengthening social protection, stable governance, and mitigation and adaptation to the impact of global climate change.

He hoped, Bangladesh could be able to overcome the middle income trap as well as the challenges regarding development in the country by adopting the prescribed policies.

BIDS Director General (DG) Dr KAS Murshid said: “It’s true that Bangladesh has not totally aligned with the global dynamics, as the country could not improve its position up to the mark in terms of ownership practice.”

“But, we are heading towards a middle income country while the main challenge is to address the market access-related issues and I think depending on only China in taking loans is not a wise decision.”

He also said: “We have to have the market access as well as competitiveness to address the middle income trap. And for that to happen, Bangladesh has to improve its internal governance.”

Bangladesh should give serious consideration to internal finance management as well as external finances and aids, added the BIDS DG.

BIDS Senior Research Fellow Dr Nazneen Ahmed and Access to Information (a2i) Program of Prime Minister’s Office Project Coordinator Md Mustafizur Rahman also spoke at the event among others.
https://www.dhakatribune.com/business/2018/01/11/bangladesh-aid-independent/
 
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That is just half of the story. Bangladesh regime increased domestic and external debt heavily.

Well I'm no hukka hua Awami cheerleader @idune bhai but what do you say about the following Government debt to GDP ratio ranking? We are at 20-30% (same level as China in this fiscal criteria) while Pakistan and India are both around 60-70%...

Talk about living on borrowed money.

Having said that - we should remember that infra expenditure on roads, construction and housing is needed to keep development ongoing...so we should maybe increase our expenditure on ports, roads, SEZ's and other infra.

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Well I'm no hukka hua Awami cheerleader @idune bhai but what do you say about the following Government debt to GDP ratio ranking? We are at 20-30% (same level as China in this fiscal criteria) while Pakistan and India are both around 60-70%...

Bangladesh economic condition and strength can not even extrapolate with Chinese one. That being said, more debt means more debt servicing from revenue. That means less revenue available for development work. That creates vicious cycle of more and more debt and fiscal nightmare. Increasing more percentage of development project from revenue and balanced investment instead of debt servicing is more sustainable model.
Debt is necessary for a developing country but wasting that money for most costly (per KM) highway, most costly bridge construction, most costly power purchase and even financing indian export to Bangladesh are UTTERLY waste and crippling burden to people.
 
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Debt is necessary for a developing country but wasting that money for most costly (per KM) highway, most costly bridge construction, most costly power purchase and even financing indian export to Bangladesh are UTTERLY waste and crippling burden to people.
Yes, you are right to say that a developing country needs foreign/local debts to build up the infrastructure. But, all debts must be serviced. BD is borrowing money from the future. However, unless more FDI is available or local money is invested in the manufacturing sector, it will be difficult to pay back the debts. Manufacturing sector provides jobs for the people and provides tax money to the government. This is how the govt. can gradually repay the debt.

People should not compare BD debt/GDP ratio with that of India. India is a fast developing country with a sound base of manufacturing sector. Its metallurgy and mechanical sector is fully developed. It can manufacture its own machines for the factories. It produces many high-valued consumer goods that provides tax money to its govt. It builds its own bridges, dams, highways and many other infrastructure works with its own engineers and technology. BD situation is different. It remains an LDC. It cannot build almost any important structures by itself. I will praise BA engineers though for building many flyovers in the country.
 
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