From MDGs to SDGs

A development paradigm shift from the high sounding Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is nothing if not a change in the strategic approach. This has become all the more evident in the deliberations on the 'Asian Partnership in Financing SDGs'. The emphasis has been on pooling internal resources instead of depending on external aid for investment in the productive sector. Already the trend is clear that overseas assistance has been diminishing and not all developed countries are willing to live up to the commitment of handing the 0.70 per cent of their gross national product (GNP) as overseas development assistance (ODA). Countries like Bangladesh have also been able to gain enough economic success in order to finance development programmes. It is no longer uncommon that funds allocated for implementation of annual development programmes (ADPs) are often returned.

The reasons behind non-utilisation of external funds for ADP may be internal inefficiency or disbursement-related complexities. But all this refers to the fact that the desperation the country once felt for procuring such assistance is no longer there. If the country can mobilise at its own initiative resources for financing a mega project like the Padma bridge and that too following the withdrawal of the World Bank from the project, the fact speaks for itself. Had the black money or the huge amount believed to have been siphoned off to a number of countries could be kept for financing the country's industrialisation or productive sector, Bangladesh at least would have found itself in a much better position in its investment endeavour. This should have been a natural process because in a free market economy, the private sector catapults its manufacturing onto higher trajectories.

Sure enough, expansion of the government's tax net is very important for augmenting revenue. But without further streamlining the procedure of tax payment together with elimination of corrupt practices in which both tax men and tax payers are involved this possibly cannot be accomplished. Many suggest that the revenue income can be raised several times more. But to make those claims really authentic, there is a need for an objective assessment of wealth. In this age of digitisation, this can be done if the authorities are serious about the matter. Even if the revenue increases many folds, the government will be in no position to take ahead its development programmes alone.

What strategy should it then follow? The much touted public-private partnership (PPP) perhaps holds the key. But in this country the experiences of such cooperation on investment has not been highly encouraging. One of the reasons is obviously the unstable political climate. Investors --both local and foreign - do not feel at ease with the disruptive politics that throws everything here into uncertainty. Also the private stake-holders in PPP ventures find the ground-level realities not yet attractive enough for realisation of their return on their investment. Procedural complexities about the PPP guidelines or framework are also not yet clear to many prospective private investors willing to be co-partners of the government in such projects.