Policy advisory council
Thursday, 11 October 2007
The making of good -- and timely -- policies or readjustment or correction, amendments or extension thereof, are very important in the economic context of a country. The policy-related exercises are crucial to set the economy on a right track in the first place. But there should be also mechanisms to determine the effectiveness of such policies or their outcome, identify the inadequacies and correct or reset them in line with the needs. Bangladesh is not without such policy-makers in the realm of its economy. The bureaucrats have always dominated policy-making exercises in the country. In the context of to-day's vastly-changed globalised economy and also in consideration of the multi-dimensional aspects of many overlapping issues and their diverse impact, policy-making exercises need to be professionalised in the sense of involving an inclusive process where various stakeholders do require to provide inputs for the same for sustained benefits of all concerned.
In this backdrop, it is heartening to note that the caretaker government has decided to form a policy advisory council under the Finance Adviser. This will be done in keeping with the promise that was made by the key functionaries of the government early last month at the 'Dialogue on Bangladesh Economy & Future perspective: The formation of the council is expected to be completed by November. Now that the economy is in dire need of major policy directions for generating confidence among the economic operators, the early operationalisation of the council for providing valuable advisory services is extremely important. The sooner such services are available and put into actions, the better will be the outcome. The advisory council, as all concerned would expect, would help remove uncertainty about policy continuity and also would lead to changes in policies, where the same are necessary, for the economy to move in the right direction.
The economy is presently facing a slowdown caused by a lack of confidence of businesses. Hopefully, business representatives at the council should be able to much improve this confidence through discharging their advisory services and the government acting on the meritorious proposal made. Meanwhile, many big foreign investment proposals remain undecided and deciding on them call for adoption of longer term policies linked to the exploitation, management and ownership of the country's energy resources. The advisory council can be useful in addressing such proposals. However, as was recently mentioned by the Finance Adviser, an inordinate delay in taking decision on a number of big foreign investment proposals has been giving wrong signals to other prospective foreign investors. The council can help the government take prompt decisions in this respect. Besides, policy makers should consider all viable options of what alternatives should guide the formulation of any policy, considering its both short and long term goals and objectives if it is decided to limit the role of the donors. The policy environment in Bangladesh needs to be improved in order to set the economy on the right track to overcome present difficulties and make faster progress.
In this backdrop, it is heartening to note that the caretaker government has decided to form a policy advisory council under the Finance Adviser. This will be done in keeping with the promise that was made by the key functionaries of the government early last month at the 'Dialogue on Bangladesh Economy & Future perspective: The formation of the council is expected to be completed by November. Now that the economy is in dire need of major policy directions for generating confidence among the economic operators, the early operationalisation of the council for providing valuable advisory services is extremely important. The sooner such services are available and put into actions, the better will be the outcome. The advisory council, as all concerned would expect, would help remove uncertainty about policy continuity and also would lead to changes in policies, where the same are necessary, for the economy to move in the right direction.
The economy is presently facing a slowdown caused by a lack of confidence of businesses. Hopefully, business representatives at the council should be able to much improve this confidence through discharging their advisory services and the government acting on the meritorious proposal made. Meanwhile, many big foreign investment proposals remain undecided and deciding on them call for adoption of longer term policies linked to the exploitation, management and ownership of the country's energy resources. The advisory council can be useful in addressing such proposals. However, as was recently mentioned by the Finance Adviser, an inordinate delay in taking decision on a number of big foreign investment proposals has been giving wrong signals to other prospective foreign investors. The council can help the government take prompt decisions in this respect. Besides, policy makers should consider all viable options of what alternatives should guide the formulation of any policy, considering its both short and long term goals and objectives if it is decided to limit the role of the donors. The policy environment in Bangladesh needs to be improved in order to set the economy on the right track to overcome present difficulties and make faster progress.