At the centre of growth triangle: Are we frittering away the opportunity?

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Habibullah N Karim China, a large country North East of us with a billion plus population, has been a star performer on the economic front in the last two decades and has achieved growth rates in the double digits in many years during this period. India, another large neighbour also with a billion plus population, mostly west of us but also bordering us to the north and east surrounding us on three sides except the south, has been another strong economic performer since the early nineties having growth rates touching almost double digits lately. A little farther to the south east of us lie the South East Asian nations of the ASEAN economic bloc which has been another major growth centre for Asia during the same period. If one looks at the map of Asia, it is easy to see that Bangladesh sits at smack middle of these three tremendous growth engines of the world. Bangladesh, with its democratic political disposition, a steady economic growth rate averaging more than 5.0 % in the last twenty years and a population surpassing 160 million, is in a unique position to leverage its geographical proximity to these regions. Bangladesh is the natutal transportation hub of the Eastern half of India, Nepal, Bhutan, South Western half of China, Western half of Myanmar and the North Western half of Thailand - a region having a population of more than a billion people in an area that is more than ten times the size of Bangladesh. The planned trans-Asian transportation network criss-crossing the country serving virtually all of Asia is designed around multi-lane expressways and railways linking up with the port in Chittagong harbour that has the necessary depth for the only potential deep-sea port for the above-mentioned catchment area. Add to this equation the fact that low-cost and labour-intensive manufactures currently based in China and the ASEAN countries such as ready-made-garments, stuffed-toys, consumer electronics, footwear, campingfishing gears, etc., are quickly moving to cheaper locations in Asia. Bangladesh is best placed to take advantage of this industrial shift. However, to take advantage of this fantastic opportunity Bangladesh must quickly build out its infrastructure in roads, railways, power generation and ports while improving the quality of the human resource through better schools, vocational training centres and healthcare facilities. These on the other hand require long-term strategic planning and a smoothly functioning government focused on economic and social developments without any distractions. These in turn require a political culture that respects the democratic norms and institutions, fosters goodwill among political leaders of all persuasions and cultivates collective wisdom and unity on the economic future of the nation. If the last twenty years have been any indication then we don't see rosy days ahead. If anything, we are seeing increased occurrence of confrontational politics where the difference of viewpoints between the two major political blocs is mostly ideological and political while there is hardly any distinction between the economic policies of the two sides. Interestingly, though, it is the economy that suffers due to the intransigent and irreconcilable political dichotomy of the warring parties. We can only hope our political leaders, many of whom have suffered immensely through the decades and still rose to serve the nation in dire situations, will allow their patriotism and sense of duty to the future generations to forsake ideological grand-standing and embrace each other's economic plans for an unstinted path of growth and equitable prosperity for the nation. The growth triangle around Bangladesh is a geographic and economic phenomenon that does not happen too often in history. We can either successfully integrate into that phenomenon or be left out in the economic gutters of history. Is that a difficult choice to make? Readers can watch today's (Sunday, 23rd) episode of Orthonitir Chaka at 5:30pm on Boishakhi Television for an in-depth discussion on the growth triangle opportunity with Professor Gustav Papanek, president of Boston Institute of Development Studies and Dr. Hossain Zillur Rahman, chairman, Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC) and an adviser of the immediate past caretaker government. The programme will be repeated at night at 12:30am and will also be available online from Thursday at BDeshTV.com. The Financial Express is the media partner and American International University of Bangladesh (AIUB) is the technical collaboration partner of Orhonitir Chaka. Habibullah N Karim is an IT entrepreneur, policy activist and the anchor of Orthonitir Chaka. He can be reached at E-mail : hnkarim@gmail.com.