Sylhet deserves better

All this has been happening since before the independence of Bangladesh. And, the time has now come to put a pertinent question to ourselves: what has Sylhet got in return for the bonanza in whatever limited sense, they have been providing the country with?

Unfortunately, most of the investments have been into non-productive service sector so that the multiplier effect of such capital investment has been missing in the broader economy, to say nothing of Sylhet itself remaining backward on the whole.

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There is no special plan and no development strategy which has evolved with an eye to absorbing surplus money of potential investors from the Bangladeshi Diaspora into productive sectors. In fact, there is no special mechanism whereby Sylhetis will feel encouraged to come and invest in a big way. And most of those who are into investment have burnt their fingers in the heat of bureaucratic red-tape. They don't feel adequately cared for.

Sylhet needs better infrastructure in terms of its communication with the port city Chittagong. With the infrastructure so revamped, gas and agro-based industries can be established in the region. The area is naturally endowed; and adjacent as it is to the north-eastern region of India, has enormous possibilities for self-growth as well as a booster to the development of Bangladesh economy.

We are, therefore, at one with the leaders and academics of Sylhet in demanding that an EPZ and an industrial park be established in the area so as to help it bloom into a prosperous region.