Musings of a citizen economist
Saturday, 1 December 2007
Ershad Khandker
ARE there theories and jargons preponderant in determining economic success? Much time is wasted time blaming the World Bank and IMF. The all-too-apparent mechanism of hard work and good sense is the primal orchestrator of economic development. This non-economist citizen of the new "economic world", as opposed to the bi-polar world, needs to know if economic development can be achieved without spending valuable time and energy debating irrelevant questions about the role of the world's donor agencies. The debt trap syndrome effected by donor agencies can certainly be a non-issue or non starter in a country where a strong work force, oriented toward growth and led by pragmatic and decisive leadership, exists.
When does the question of economic self-reliance become relevant in the life of a person? Self reliance comes from hard work in education and profession. A predilection to the attributes of learning and hard work will bring forth a cosmopolitan and egalitarian society, allowing for some egregious elements that will always be there. The ethos of hard work and high education should be planted early in a human being's life. The best way is to be hardworking and have children see and feel it around them by observing others in their family scenario. Then the responsible guardians would have to be disciplined mangers teaching the child to gradually take to education and hard work. The scientists, teachers, engineers, entrepreneurs will come from such hard working people. The success of the successful spawns revenue for the government coffers, and employment opportunities for many as the successful invariable create such resources by either starting their own business or by helping other companies to be successful enterprises. One child in a talented family, in a micro level, creates a boon of opportunities for so many at a later stage.
Your writer believes that one does not need to worry about anything if one knows how to look at the basic tenets of success. The national concept should be to encourage education and hard work as a catalyst for nation building. The leaders and educationists should speak about the need to take a stand against factors that pollute the environment for the economic activities of the country. One must not only speak as such, the actions and recommendations at all levels -- starting from children, to students if you are teachers, subordinates if you are a managers, and to the public in general, if you are a politician. The nation must realise it and then feel it and ultimately live through it.
The title of the memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew, founding father of Singapore should be a good reference point for our leaders. He transformed a fractious and heterogeneous country into a modern economic powerhouse. The memoir is called "From Third World to First World, The Singapore Story, 1965-2000." The title itself sums up the journey that a country needs to take. Singapore was a country recovering from the Japanese occupation, surrounded by inhospitable Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam. There were countless other serious problems like the communist insurgency, a racial mix-match that was combustible to the extreme because of on-going racial tension and violent riots in Malaysia and Indonesia that soon created virulent tensions in Singapore. The textual content is written in a simple language in keeping with the direct and the no-frills but practical policies of the great man. And the pictures in the book tell the story of the transformation, the early Singapore will appear to look like Old Dhaka, while the Singapore of today is like a European city.
A common refrain about the success story of Singapore and the role Lee played is to point to the small size of the country. The country in reality faced almost impossibly difficult challenges -- serious racial infighting, chronic economic problems and threats of blockade from Malaysia and Indonesia and highhanded haranguing from Vietnam. An uneducated population and mostly migrants from China, Malaysia and India also found it hard to be cohesive, living and working in squalor and depravation. The small size of Singapore s a marginal point because of the entire myriad problems Singapore faced, both internally and regionally.
Quizzically, Lee Kuan Yew made reference to the size issue himself when the Prime Minister of the war-ravaged communist Vietnam asked him to become an economic advisor. Lee said that while he successfully guided Singapore to economic development, Singapore was a city-state while Vietnam was a big country with a population of 60 million. But the Vietnamese leadership showed their world vision and leadership acumen and despite a difficult relationship with Prime Minster Lee, Singapore's founding father was appointed economic advisor of Vietnam.
A strong, charismatic and patriotic leader, such as the Vietnamese Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet understood, that the bi-polar world was no longer. Finding ways to achieve economic development was the paramount need and a globalised economy was already allowing hard working and organised people to achieve development by linking up with the world economy. A fearless guerilla fighter and efficient organiser like Van Kiet did not fail to understand the need to change. Prime minister Lee himself writes, "The Vietnamese leaders were an impressive group and that they were formidable opponents who had great determination and fighting spirit" (page-53 of the aforementioned memoir).
The guerrilla freedom fighters of Bangladesh in 1971 displayed the same vigour and determination. Perhaps we can invite Lee Kuan Yew to come for a visit or two. This is the same leader who says in page 370: "The role of President Suharto was crucial for the success of ASEAN. Suharto moderated the approach to one diametrically different from India's vis-à-vis SAARC", pointing to the big brotherly attitude adopted by India within SAARC that surely is inimical to the economic growth of the region. This is an example of the vision of Lee Kuan Yew. Both Bangladesh and the SAARC region would benefit immensely if they made him an advisor in some sort of overseeing capacity.
The leaders of Singapore and Malaysia are both "unpopular" with the media in the west. Mr. Mahathir Muhammad of Malaysia and Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore has made it a habit to take the west to task on various issues. In fact, neither leader have followed the western model of democracy but shrewdly managed to have democracy of an ilk that suited their impoverished countries. Yet, these leaders courted the western economic and business leaders and forums furiously, and gave direct and strict orders that all proposals, overtures, exploratory enquiries about business should be top priority. Government departments hired highly qualified and educated people. Regulations and mechanisms were put in place so that incoming proposals for business received maximum priority and good workable proposals received quick approval.
"The world is experiencing one of the biggest revolutions in history, as economic power shifts from the developed world to China and other emerging giants …… 30% of world GDP, they are sitting on 75% of global foreign exchange reserves" (The Economist p-75, November 17th-23rd, 20007). The Economist goes on to say, this year for the first time emerging economies are likely to have bought slightly over half of America's exports, helping to prop up the economy of the United States. Bangladesh can and should duplicate the success of the emerging economies because at least by definition and by sovereign rating, based on potential alone, Bangladesh is part of the group."
Liberalisation of the economy, strong monetary and financial and regulatory framework, high performance service delivery for investors, development of logistical infrastructure and technological advancement are some of the reasons for the growth of the emerging economies. Foreign direct investment (FDI) poured in to these economies generating a service industry that could be said to be due to the FDI factor alone! The money brought in by the investors led to spending in the local market. The profits transferred by them to their mother countries are in the billions but they also generated jobs and then trained the local population in high skills sponsoring the talented with their own money, in the quest to keep their business profitable. Investors encourage local growth by initiating it. Their profit making encourages the locals to outperform them. Take Teletalk in the case of an example from Bangladesh itself. Within the last fortnight, we have seen an improvement in their branding and image. The government should offer all-out support to Teletalk so that they can reach the standard of Grameen phone. Teletalk should hire smart and efficient staff and improve their own service. The emergence of Teletalk is the biggest proof that foreign companies can generate positive competition and also extra jobs for the qualified engineers that various technological universities are churning out.
Bangladesh also surprised itself, notwithstanding criminal wastage through political troubles and endemic corruption by registering approximately 6.0% GDP growth rate with all indicators showing forward growth potential. This happened, despite poor share in the information technology sector and general lack of sophistication in the market. We need to adopt -- Internet connectivity, high quality infrastructure, localised technological parks, high quality educational institutions, superb officers in the government departments, a vibrant capital market to generate capital for fledgling industrial/service and technological companies, support and encouragement from stable governments (can we not have an efficient well meaning government in a stable system?), law and order etc.
The IMF and World Bank follow the simple logic that they can have a country behave like a corporate entity. Calls for reducing subsidies into essential services stem from the reasoning that a country cannot spend money propping up services, which are unproductive; if you do not have money, do not spend it. But a country is not a corporate body, and a government cannot just end subsidies while the people at the end of the production line will face starvation and depravation. Well, we do not have to listen to the IMF and World Bank and the local IMF mission chief went on record stating that they are not going ask the government to raise fuel prices just as yet. But, we will be able to sustain the poor in the country if we create jobs by doing it the way Japan and China have done, by creating wealth so that the government coffers are adequate enough to help the desperate poor with welfare programmes and also only for the absolute poor. No country wants any part of its population in welfare while there are jobs available.
The World Bank is irrelevant (with all due respect) but the World is not! This writer believes that his musings are nothing new. He has seen such concerns and admonishments and above all insight raised by people from every walk of life including the have-nots! Let us not talk about things that are irrelevant, but talk of nurturing nation-building through education and hard work. The world awaits Bangladesh to invite their help let; us show the courage to say no to World Bank through deeds, and say yes to the world.
ARE there theories and jargons preponderant in determining economic success? Much time is wasted time blaming the World Bank and IMF. The all-too-apparent mechanism of hard work and good sense is the primal orchestrator of economic development. This non-economist citizen of the new "economic world", as opposed to the bi-polar world, needs to know if economic development can be achieved without spending valuable time and energy debating irrelevant questions about the role of the world's donor agencies. The debt trap syndrome effected by donor agencies can certainly be a non-issue or non starter in a country where a strong work force, oriented toward growth and led by pragmatic and decisive leadership, exists.
When does the question of economic self-reliance become relevant in the life of a person? Self reliance comes from hard work in education and profession. A predilection to the attributes of learning and hard work will bring forth a cosmopolitan and egalitarian society, allowing for some egregious elements that will always be there. The ethos of hard work and high education should be planted early in a human being's life. The best way is to be hardworking and have children see and feel it around them by observing others in their family scenario. Then the responsible guardians would have to be disciplined mangers teaching the child to gradually take to education and hard work. The scientists, teachers, engineers, entrepreneurs will come from such hard working people. The success of the successful spawns revenue for the government coffers, and employment opportunities for many as the successful invariable create such resources by either starting their own business or by helping other companies to be successful enterprises. One child in a talented family, in a micro level, creates a boon of opportunities for so many at a later stage.
Your writer believes that one does not need to worry about anything if one knows how to look at the basic tenets of success. The national concept should be to encourage education and hard work as a catalyst for nation building. The leaders and educationists should speak about the need to take a stand against factors that pollute the environment for the economic activities of the country. One must not only speak as such, the actions and recommendations at all levels -- starting from children, to students if you are teachers, subordinates if you are a managers, and to the public in general, if you are a politician. The nation must realise it and then feel it and ultimately live through it.
The title of the memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew, founding father of Singapore should be a good reference point for our leaders. He transformed a fractious and heterogeneous country into a modern economic powerhouse. The memoir is called "From Third World to First World, The Singapore Story, 1965-2000." The title itself sums up the journey that a country needs to take. Singapore was a country recovering from the Japanese occupation, surrounded by inhospitable Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam. There were countless other serious problems like the communist insurgency, a racial mix-match that was combustible to the extreme because of on-going racial tension and violent riots in Malaysia and Indonesia that soon created virulent tensions in Singapore. The textual content is written in a simple language in keeping with the direct and the no-frills but practical policies of the great man. And the pictures in the book tell the story of the transformation, the early Singapore will appear to look like Old Dhaka, while the Singapore of today is like a European city.
A common refrain about the success story of Singapore and the role Lee played is to point to the small size of the country. The country in reality faced almost impossibly difficult challenges -- serious racial infighting, chronic economic problems and threats of blockade from Malaysia and Indonesia and highhanded haranguing from Vietnam. An uneducated population and mostly migrants from China, Malaysia and India also found it hard to be cohesive, living and working in squalor and depravation. The small size of Singapore s a marginal point because of the entire myriad problems Singapore faced, both internally and regionally.
Quizzically, Lee Kuan Yew made reference to the size issue himself when the Prime Minister of the war-ravaged communist Vietnam asked him to become an economic advisor. Lee said that while he successfully guided Singapore to economic development, Singapore was a city-state while Vietnam was a big country with a population of 60 million. But the Vietnamese leadership showed their world vision and leadership acumen and despite a difficult relationship with Prime Minster Lee, Singapore's founding father was appointed economic advisor of Vietnam.
A strong, charismatic and patriotic leader, such as the Vietnamese Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet understood, that the bi-polar world was no longer. Finding ways to achieve economic development was the paramount need and a globalised economy was already allowing hard working and organised people to achieve development by linking up with the world economy. A fearless guerilla fighter and efficient organiser like Van Kiet did not fail to understand the need to change. Prime minister Lee himself writes, "The Vietnamese leaders were an impressive group and that they were formidable opponents who had great determination and fighting spirit" (page-53 of the aforementioned memoir).
The guerrilla freedom fighters of Bangladesh in 1971 displayed the same vigour and determination. Perhaps we can invite Lee Kuan Yew to come for a visit or two. This is the same leader who says in page 370: "The role of President Suharto was crucial for the success of ASEAN. Suharto moderated the approach to one diametrically different from India's vis-à-vis SAARC", pointing to the big brotherly attitude adopted by India within SAARC that surely is inimical to the economic growth of the region. This is an example of the vision of Lee Kuan Yew. Both Bangladesh and the SAARC region would benefit immensely if they made him an advisor in some sort of overseeing capacity.
The leaders of Singapore and Malaysia are both "unpopular" with the media in the west. Mr. Mahathir Muhammad of Malaysia and Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore has made it a habit to take the west to task on various issues. In fact, neither leader have followed the western model of democracy but shrewdly managed to have democracy of an ilk that suited their impoverished countries. Yet, these leaders courted the western economic and business leaders and forums furiously, and gave direct and strict orders that all proposals, overtures, exploratory enquiries about business should be top priority. Government departments hired highly qualified and educated people. Regulations and mechanisms were put in place so that incoming proposals for business received maximum priority and good workable proposals received quick approval.
"The world is experiencing one of the biggest revolutions in history, as economic power shifts from the developed world to China and other emerging giants …… 30% of world GDP, they are sitting on 75% of global foreign exchange reserves" (The Economist p-75, November 17th-23rd, 20007). The Economist goes on to say, this year for the first time emerging economies are likely to have bought slightly over half of America's exports, helping to prop up the economy of the United States. Bangladesh can and should duplicate the success of the emerging economies because at least by definition and by sovereign rating, based on potential alone, Bangladesh is part of the group."
Liberalisation of the economy, strong monetary and financial and regulatory framework, high performance service delivery for investors, development of logistical infrastructure and technological advancement are some of the reasons for the growth of the emerging economies. Foreign direct investment (FDI) poured in to these economies generating a service industry that could be said to be due to the FDI factor alone! The money brought in by the investors led to spending in the local market. The profits transferred by them to their mother countries are in the billions but they also generated jobs and then trained the local population in high skills sponsoring the talented with their own money, in the quest to keep their business profitable. Investors encourage local growth by initiating it. Their profit making encourages the locals to outperform them. Take Teletalk in the case of an example from Bangladesh itself. Within the last fortnight, we have seen an improvement in their branding and image. The government should offer all-out support to Teletalk so that they can reach the standard of Grameen phone. Teletalk should hire smart and efficient staff and improve their own service. The emergence of Teletalk is the biggest proof that foreign companies can generate positive competition and also extra jobs for the qualified engineers that various technological universities are churning out.
Bangladesh also surprised itself, notwithstanding criminal wastage through political troubles and endemic corruption by registering approximately 6.0% GDP growth rate with all indicators showing forward growth potential. This happened, despite poor share in the information technology sector and general lack of sophistication in the market. We need to adopt -- Internet connectivity, high quality infrastructure, localised technological parks, high quality educational institutions, superb officers in the government departments, a vibrant capital market to generate capital for fledgling industrial/service and technological companies, support and encouragement from stable governments (can we not have an efficient well meaning government in a stable system?), law and order etc.
The IMF and World Bank follow the simple logic that they can have a country behave like a corporate entity. Calls for reducing subsidies into essential services stem from the reasoning that a country cannot spend money propping up services, which are unproductive; if you do not have money, do not spend it. But a country is not a corporate body, and a government cannot just end subsidies while the people at the end of the production line will face starvation and depravation. Well, we do not have to listen to the IMF and World Bank and the local IMF mission chief went on record stating that they are not going ask the government to raise fuel prices just as yet. But, we will be able to sustain the poor in the country if we create jobs by doing it the way Japan and China have done, by creating wealth so that the government coffers are adequate enough to help the desperate poor with welfare programmes and also only for the absolute poor. No country wants any part of its population in welfare while there are jobs available.
The World Bank is irrelevant (with all due respect) but the World is not! This writer believes that his musings are nothing new. He has seen such concerns and admonishments and above all insight raised by people from every walk of life including the have-nots! Let us not talk about things that are irrelevant, but talk of nurturing nation-building through education and hard work. The world awaits Bangladesh to invite their help let; us show the courage to say no to World Bank through deeds, and say yes to the world.