Editorial
Towards becoming a middle-income country
Some suggestions to reach the goal
THERE are all the positive signs that Bangladesh is marching ahead towards becoming a middle-income country by the year 2020. This achievable goal is projected by our policy makers on the basis of some development indicators. And now it largely depends on the next elected government to give a boost to the momentum so that we are firmly on course.
Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed stressed these facts in his inaugural speech at the Bangladesh Apparel and Textile Exposition (Batexpo) organised by Bangladesh Garment Exporters Association (BGMEA) on Thursday. It is true that to reduce poverty and generate employment, productivity in every factory or industry will have to be increased, maintaining at the same time quality to compete in a demanding business world. The reputation of the country has to be kept aloft no matter what comes in the way. We hope the garment-factory owners would give a serious consideration to his suggestion for providing dearness allowance, timely salary and other benefits to the factory workers. This needs no emphasising that apparel exporters will have to search for new international markets instead of depending on the US and the European destinations to face the challenges of the global financial recession. The suggestion for forming a committee to monitor the effects of global financial meltdown on the economy of Bangladesh was a timely one and we feel it should be implemented without losing any time. In fact, the country should prepare itself to face any eventuality of the financial crisis hitting mostly the developed countries at the moment though.
We feel the middle-income nation goal would be a lot easier to achieve if the future government would help create an environment for the public and private sectors to work in tandem, complimenting one another in the nation-building enterprise. There are many sectors that still remain underutilised, such as the IT sector, and we believe it can turn into one of the major foreign currency-earning sectors if the government can formulate a pragmatic policy and the private sector implement it. We are confident that the existing profitable business sectors will continue to grow and contribute to the rapid progress of Bangladesh. The next government will need to identify its priorities and give primacy to economic development on its list of agenda.
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