Balance of trade

An easy way to understand any country's economic scenario is through its balance of trade. It shows the difference between the total amount of incoming and outgoing currencies through import and export. The recent trend of our country's balance of trade is negative. It is difficult to turn a negative balance of trade into a positive one in a short period, but it is important to reduce the imbalance as much as possible. In reality, a positive balance of trade indicates a strong economic structure of a country. It generates continuous demand for production which helps to reduce the unemployment rate, increase the amount of local and foreign investment and most importantly improves the standard of life. In each year, Bangladesh needs to import different kinds of goods to serve its internal demands. For this, a large amount of money needs to be spend on imports. According to the Statistics Department of Bangladesh Bank, the balance of trade stood at a negative Tk 95596 billion in 2010-11, Tk 620.93 billion in 2009-10, Tk 573.25 billion in 2008-09 and Tk 620.87 billion in 2007-08, which indicates that the negative balance of trade of our country is showing an increasing trend. The present economic scenario is also not favorable because of the unstable capital market, lower foreign investment and increasing number of returning workers from foreign countries due to unstable political situation in the Middle East. For a favourable balance of trade situation, we need to increase our exports by expanding our export markets. For us, export access to every region is important, especially export to the SAARC region. Due to mistrust between India and Pakistan; SAARC is failing to implement SAFTA properly compared to other regional free trade agreements like NAFTA. If we can implement SAFTA properly, it will help increase our export volume in the region. India has recently agreed to give duty-free access to almost all products from the least developed countries in the SAARC region, including Bangladesh. This is a good opportunity for us to increase our exports to that country. More research and institutional support are needed to increase our export volume and production to satisfy local and international demand which will help to lower the present negative balance of trade. Ahmed Shamir Sakir Independent University Bangladesh, Chittagong. Email: ahmed_shamir@live.com Facelift of archeological sites Of all ancient civilisations, South-East Asian civilisations are remarkable. Traders as well as agriculturists flourished in Mahasthanghar about 3,000 years ago. The memories of Pala, Sen, Mourya, Gupta, Mughal dynasties are kept in the heart of the old city of Pundra, situated 12 km from Bogra town. It also bears the glorious and traditional cultural identity of the Bengalis. No government took initiatives to improve the infrastructure in and around Mahasthangar to attract the attention of the tourists. But few days back, ADB sanctioned Tk 5.7 million for a facelift project for Mahasthan, Somapura Mahavihara, Kantaji Temple. The regional Archeology Department said that the money would be spent on making these sites more attractive to the visitors. Hotels, motels, parking zones and some other infrastructures would also be constructed next year so that the tourists could access food, shelter, communication with modern facilities. Some 42 per cent of the total number of tourists from 2005-2010 have visited the northern part of the country. In keeping with the growing importance of the area the Parjatan corporation has decided to designate the area as "Special Tourist zone." It is estimated that about 140,000 visitors visit Mahastanghar Museum and the government earns Tk 2.5 million every year. Mamun-ur-Rashid Bogra E-mail: mamun_bd1976@yahoo.com