Missions' export targets

It is learnt that the government is contemplating to hold our heads of missions abroad answerable for meeting countrywide annual export targets set for their respective missions. Usually, the economic counsellors of 46 Bangladeshi missions abroad covering some 124 countries would be held accountable by their parent ministry, which is the commerce ministry, for any failure to meet the targets. Let's not forget though, the chiefs of our missions abroad belong to the ministry of foreign affairs.

Apparently, there is a conflict of jurisdiction, although one sees no clash of interests here. To put it mildly, and perhaps more accurately, the jurisdictional tussle is a case of lacked coordination. The question is: do the missions set themselves the export targets or for that matter, is the foreign ministry consulted before fixing the targets? For all we know, the commerce ministry sets the export targets for its economic wing officials abroad, who are technically under the control of the chiefs of our missions overseas.

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The attitude seems to be to wrest out work from one incumbent or the other and hold somebody responsible for failure. There is nothing wrong in the approach except for the very important fact that it has not been preceded by a clear-cut delineation of responsibilities within a policy framework that also stipulates coordination and integration at the right points.

The overarching need is to gear up economic diplomacy to the level of regional countries, an agenda which seems to have been banished to the background. Actually, much higher export targets can be achieved only as a spin-off from economic diplomacy.