Ascending the ladder of growth

According to the World Bank statistics, Bangladesh is  now a lower middle-income country with a per capita annual income of US$1,080. Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), however, puts it at US$1,314. Naturally our immediate next target is to become a higher middle income country with an annual average per capita income between US$4,126 and US$12,735.
As World Bank economic indicators suggest, we shall have to fulfill a few other requirements for attaining higher middle-income status: ensuring a favourable and healthy environment for children's growth, healthy family atmosphere, proper treatment for the elderly people and a meaningful direction for the young generation. The road is long and steep.
We can soon become a higher middle-income country, if we can fully capitalise on our available resources that include human resource, financial resource, agricultural resource and mineral resource. In order to reach higher stage of growth, we shall have to utilise properly all our resources to perform a fifth task, which is to flourish in trade and industry, internally as well as externally, This is not possible for a single individual or an organisation and calls for a concerted action from the entire nation.
The present state of our human resource needs to be developed further with changes in perception. The state of business will have to be equally developed to offer the following: products of higher quality than the competitors, competitive price for the products and timely supply of the goods and services.    
There are multiple trends in our education system. Many view it as a retarding factor, but it is not actually so because multiple trends of education produce the much-needed variety in human resources and can become our strength. What is to be noted is that education should help equip our students with higher knowledge and make them hardworking and intelligent.   
Secondly, we should learn to effectively utilise our limited financial resources for development purposes, not for savings alone. Although limited savings are necessary, development means increased consumption which entails higher spending. In fact, business and industrial organisations will close down if consumption does not increase.  
Thirdly, agriculture sector that contributes about 17 per cent to our GDP (gross domestic product), should be enriched with new innovations and farm lands should be fully utilized. Distribution of fertiliser, pesticides and seeds will have to be rescued from the clutches of unscrupulous traders. Special emphasis will have to be given to the development of human resource in agriculture. Necessary subsidy will have to be extended.    
Fourthly, dependence on foreigners for exploration and extraction of mineral resources will have to be reduced. It is essential that we overcome the limitation and establish our control over management of our mineral resources. This is also essential for our economic development.
Fifthly, we should set up businesses and build industries. Our new identity should be as a business nation, as development of a nation depends mainly on its trade and commerce. Our workers are now spread all over the world and our armed forces are engaged in UN peacekeeping missions in different countries. We shall have to penetrate into foreign markets through our business activities in the same way. Our entrepreneurs will have to move ahead across the world with their products and build up a brand image.  
Our financial institutions can play a vital role by extending their activities beyond and outside our national frontiers. There are many who consider it as plight of capital. But it should be noted that successful entrepreneurs can increase their capital by a number of times by expanding their sphere of activities. Similarly, if our banks expand their businesses outside the country, capital procured abroad in this way shall be much higher than capital transferred.  
We can thus raise our development status and can elevate ourselves to the high middle-income status. A note of caution: political strife will only intensify further if economic prosperity is not achieved.
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