Bangladesh’s Middle Income Ambition Hinges on the Future of its Cities

[CaPtAiN_pLaNeT]

Bangladesh’s Middle Income Ambition Hinges on the Future of its Cities
July 10, 2013

Bangladesh

Selim Azad/World Bank
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Bangladesh needs a vibrant, livable and economically diverse Dhaka City to reach middle-income status.
Peri-urban areas of Dhaka require better infrastructure and services to transform into globally competitive manufacturing centers.

Improving the competitiveness of Chittagong Port, and enhancing accessibility within the Dhaka-Chittagong corridor will be critical for growth.

To accelerate growth Bangladesh needs cities that are more capable to innovating, better connected internally and to external markets, and more livable.
Bangladesh aspires to attain middle-income status by 2021, the 50th anniversary of its independence. To do so, Bangladesh will need to accelerate growth and undergo a structural transformation that will change the geography of its economic production.

Critical to this transformation will be the creation of a competitive urban space – a space that has the capacity to innovate, is well connected internally and to external markets, and is livable. This is one of the insights emerging from the book, Bangladesh: The Path to Middle-income Status from an Urban Perspective, which was launched in Dhaka on June 15.

The book, published by the World Bank with support from Australian Aid and Cities Alliance, presents new empirical evidence on the drivers of and constraints to urban competitiveness through the lens of the private sector. The evidence is based on the results of a survey of 1,000 garment firms conducted across urban locations in Bangladesh.

“Strong economic growth has sustained and fueled urbanization in Bangladesh. And urbanization has enhanced economic transformation through the clustering of economic activities,” said Johannes Zutt, Country Director for Bangladesh and Nepal.

The book finds that Bangladesh’s rapid urbanization presents unique features which have implications for its journey to middle income status. Bangladesh has exceptionally high population density, and needs equally high economic density – which only highly competitive urban areas can sustain – to reach middle-income status.

The urban transition however, is not yielding all of its potential economic benefits. Bangladesh’s cities have extremely poor infrastructure and low level of services. Further, the high specialization of Bangladesh’s largest cities in low-value added, labor-intensive garment production is a constraint for growth.

Dhaka City

Bangladesh needs a vibrant, livable and economically diverse Dhaka City to reach middle-income status. Dhaka City has a productivity advantage among urban locations because of its unrivaled access to labor and markets. However, it is falling behind in accessibility and livability because of high congestion and severe constraints in land and housing markets. It needs to gain a competitive edge in higher-value-added products and services, as garment production de-concentrates to rapidly growing peri-urban areas.

Peri-urban metropolitan Dhaka

The peri-urban areas of metropolitan Dhaka are rapidly emerging as competitive manufacturing centers. However, they have not been able to develop to their full potential because their infrastructure requirements have gone largely unmet. These areas also indirectly suffer from the costs of traffic congestion in Dhaka City. To transform the peri-urban areas of Dhaka into globally competitive manufacturing centers, Bangladesh will require institutional mechanisms to support coordination between the core and the periphery of metropolitan Dhaka.

Chittagong City

The country’s largest seaport and second largest city, Chittagong City is a growing industrial center. From the perspective of garment firms, it is a lower-cost, lower-productivity location compared to Dhaka City. It is a less competitive location than Dhaka City in access to labor and market. But lower productivity compensates for lower land and housing costs. Chittagong City also has an advantage in accessibility given its access to the port.

“Chittagong City has failed to capitalize on its natural comparative advantage as Bangladesh’s largest seaport city. Improving the competitiveness of Chittagong Port as part of a modern logistic chain within the Dhaka-Chittagong corridor will be critical for growth,” said Ming Zhang, Sector Manager for the South Asia Urban & Water Unit.

Small and medium-size cities

Small and medium-size cities are uncompetitive locations that lack access to markets from the perspective of the garment sector. “Small and medium-size cities need to find their comparative advantages by relying on local entrepreneurship rather than attempting to attract firms from elsewhere through relocation incentives,” said Elisa Muzzini, Senior Economist, South Asia Urban & Water Unit.

The World Bank is supporting research and dialogue in Bangladesh on urbanization with different academic and research institutes in the country. The recent establishment of Bangladesh Urban Research Institute (BURI) in December 2012 has been an important step in fostering dialogue on this important agenda.

 

[mb444]

Fundamentally disagree with such sumplistic assertions. The future of Bangladesh lies in its villages. To aquire middle income status BD need to enable economic activities dispersed throughout the country. Having great localised infrastructure in the urban areas mean nothing. We are an unique country, we have a huge population with corresponding huge internal demand combined with a small geographical area. To truly progress our infrastructure development must be diffused throughout the country to maximise the dividends of our internal strengths. We are not a country with concentration of population in particular points, we are high population density nation which is uniform in pattern. This kind of lame *** idiotic economics just gets on my nerves. BD needs good ports, roads, energy and data access .... Period..... Dhaka or city centric development model postulated may work in other countries but won't here because no other country in the world has our characteristics.

 

[scholseys]

Fundamentally disagree with such sumplistic assertions. The future of Bangladesh lies in its villages. To aquire middle income status BD need to enable economic activities dispersed throughout the country. Having great localised infrastructure in the urban areas mean nothing. We are an unique country, we have a huge population with corresponding huge internal demand combined with a small geographical area. To truly progress our infrastructure development must be diffused throughout the country to maximise the dividends of our internal strengths. We are not a country with concentration of population in particular points, we are high population density nation which is uniform in pattern. This kind of lame *** idiotic economics just gets on my nerves. BD needs good ports, roads, energy and data access .... Period..... Dhaka or city centric development model postulated may work in other countries but won't here because no other country in the world has our characteristics.

we need to further develop our major cities, this article meant that. Gandhi opted for your plan on going for the villages and it blew up in India's face.

 

[TopCat]

Fundamentally disagree with such sumplistic assertions. The future of Bangladesh lies in its villages. To aquire middle income status BD need to enable economic activities dispersed throughout the country. Having great localised infrastructure in the urban areas mean nothing. We are an unique country, we have a huge population with corresponding huge internal demand combined with a small geographical area. To truly progress our infrastructure development must be diffused throughout the country to maximise the dividends of our internal strengths. We are not a country with concentration of population in particular points, we are high population density nation which is uniform in pattern. This kind of lame *** idiotic economics just gets on my nerves. BD needs good ports, roads, energy and data access .... Period..... Dhaka or city centric development model postulated may work in other countries but won't here because no other country in the world has our characteristics.

I think your approach is rather simplistic. We need to vacate villages more and create open spaces outside cities. Cities needs to rise vertically and create rooms for at least 60% of the country's population. Now the whole country looks and feels like congested and very densely populated. But after my plan, the country will look more like Japan where 3 crore out of 10 crore people lives in Tokyo.

 

[SarthakGanguly]

"vacate villages more and create open spaces outside cities" - an excellent plan. Should work in all South Asia. But then you know how difficult it is to implement. If you can, do it quickly. We can then point a finger and shame our leaders and say - "See if they do it, we can too."

Source: http://www.defence.pk/forums/bangla...n-hinges-future-its-cities.html#ixzz2YphZWW2M

I think your approach is rather simplistic. We need to vacate villages more and create open spaces outside cities. Cities needs to rise vertically and create rooms for at least 60% of the country's population. Now the whole country looks and feels like congested and very densely populated. But after my plan, the country will look more like Japan where 3 crore out of 10 crore people lives in Tokyo.

 

[mb444]

we need to further develop our major cities, this article meant that. Gandhi opted for your plan on going for the villages and it blew up in India's face.

Indian policy was somewhat different. They went for developing cottage industry instead of proper industrialisation that is not what one is saying.

The article talks about centralising economic activity and supporting infrastructure in urban centres. It's a standard trickle down theory. It may be appropriate for other countries it is not for BD. we are entirely unique. In a very small case comparison can be made to a city state like dubai or Singapore. You can not say develop only let's say north of Dubai first. It would not have worked. BD exhibits the characteristics of a city state. Our infrastructural planners needs to take the entire country into consideration rather that the cities first and then everyone else.

 

[scholseys]

Indian policy was somewhat different. They went for developing cottage industry instead of proper industrialisation that is not what one is saying.

The article talks about centralising economic activity and supporting infrastructure in urban centres. It's a standard trickle down theory. It may be appropriate for other countries it is not for BD. we are entirely unique. In a very small case comparison can be made to a city state like dubai or Singapore. You can not say develop only let's say north of Dubai first. It would not have worked. BD exhibits the characteristics of a city state. Our infrastructural planners needs to take the entire country into consideration rather that the cities first and then everyone else.

the infrustructure in our central urban centers are a big fat joke....The amount of fuel that people burn sitting in traffic jams must be astronomical. Our main cities must be developed further, villages and towns will follow suit. We must develop our society first.

 

[mb444]

You are right in that Dhaka. CTG lacks infrastructure. These needs to be resolved. But the transportation planners need to work of a master plan that covers the country. Everything in BD is dhaka centric, somewhat expected but this needs to change. BD can not attain MDG without taking everyone along.

 

[Zabaniyah]

It takes sixteen hours to get from Dhaka to Chittagong by road

 

[SarthakGanguly]

By road or train?

It takes sixteen hours to get from Dhaka to Chittagong by road

 

[Zabaniyah]

By road or train?

By road (edited).

By train it takes eight hours or more.

 

[SarthakGanguly]

Is it because of bad roads? Because in Google Maps it showed around 250 kms and the estimated time was 5.30 hours.

By road (edited).

By train it takes eight hours or more.

 

[Zabaniyah]

Is it because of bad roads? Because in Google Maps it showed around 250 kms and the estimated time was 5.30 hours.

Poor infrastructure and traffic.

 

[Luffy 500]

Decentralization and planned urbanization is the way to go IMO. We need at least 10 mega cities in the form of Gazipur, Rashahi, Khulna, Rangpur, Shylet, Moulovibazar, Chittagong and barishal. Each of these cities should be surrounded by their satellite towns & cities. Industrial zones and EPZ should be seperate from cities but closely linked by good highways and railways. Dhaka-Chittagong corridor can be a good industrial hub connected to the rest of the country via good infrastructure. All these will also save a lot of rural space for scenic beauty and accomadate the major chunk of the population in big cities who can also hope for a habitable life style if the cities and urbanization are done in a planned manner. Cities should be build with a long term vision. Dhaka is already an uninhabitable hell and shylet and chittagong will similarly follow suit if steps are not taken now. Frankly I have no hope to see beautiful cities in BD thanks to corrupt inefficient bureaucracy run by incompetent idiots recruited via mama ,chacas and Quotas. Laws are in place but all it lacks it strict implementation and monitoring and off course lack of political vision.