Policy on nation's strategic resources
Wednesday, 25 July 2007
Syed Fattahul Alim
The crucial resources on which the economies of the world, whether big or small, developed or developing, depend are what mother nature still preserves in her bosom in the form of various kinds of mineral ores. Of all the underground resources, hydrocarbon is enjoying the most favoured status since the modern engine-driven civilisation started its journey. But these natural resources are not equally distributed among all the countries of the world. Blessed are the countries on the earth that have huge quantities of mineral resources under the surface of the landmass within their respective national boundaries. At least that has been the dominant view of the richness or otherwise of a country since long.
In fact, existence of different types of mineral resources beneath the earth was once the main yardstick to measure whether a country is rich or poor. Still today, people are wont to say that Bangladesh is a poor country, because we have few reserves of mineral deposit. Though such assessment of a country's economic worth is hardly relevant in today's context, still the import of mineral resources in a modern-day economy cannot be overemphasised. Even then, there are some countries like Japan and Singapore in the world that have reached the pinnacle of economic advancement despite the fact that they are not gifted with any valuable natural resources underground. Japan, however, has the most vital resource that other countries envy. It is their people. Here, however, it is the quality of the Japanese people, or what in modern parlance one would also like to call human resource and not their number or size that is being emphasised. The Japanese people are an extremely skilled and innovative lot. This is why they achieved so many miracles, whereas many of their counterparts, notwithstanding their adequate natural and mineral resources, have failed to make their mark so fast on the economic map of the world.
Returning to our own case, compared to Japan, Bangladesh is a rather lucky nation in that it is not totally deprived of the gifts of nature. We have sufficient quantities of gas and coal reserves. What is more, Bangladesh has also a huge reserve of human resource.
Unfortunately, even with all such potentials, Bangladesh is, as it were, trundling along with its burden of population along the path of growth. The issue has been discoursed upon in this column more than once to put in plain words as to how as a nation we are yet to chart out a viable growth path and tap the country's natural and human potentials most efficiently and gainfully.
In a recent roundtable titled 'National coal policy: present context,' experts have drawn the attention of the government, which is now busy waging a crusade against corruption, to the nation's mineral resources policy. The main theme of the roundtable was the government's coal policy. The experts at the discussion were against the export of coal and held the view that the government should not be in an unnecessary haste to devise a coal policy. Rather it should take time to think of a coal policy that would serve the national interest best. It may be recalled here that in order for its extraction and use, the first draft policy on coal was framed in 2005. Meanwhile, two years have passed and the policy under consideration has gone through revisions or editions for six times. Strangely though, the sixth draft was also not the final one, since another was framed in June this year, informed Nuruddin Mahmud Kamal, former chairman of the Power development Board (PDB), blaming it on the tardiness of the bureaucracy, which he alleged was working to surrender country's mineral resources to the foreign companies. Kamal made this comment while presenting his keynote paper at the discussion.
The discussants at the roundtable held that all these changes or revisions in the draft coal policy did hardly serve any useful purpose for the nation. The debates raged over whether the coal would be extracted through underground or open pit mining.
Nuruddin Mahmud Kamal alluded to Phulbari, which was a scene of violent and bloody public protest against open pit mining in a not-too-distant past. So he questioned, why are the bureaucrats again encouraging the incumbent government to go for open pit mining at that place which is so unpopular to the local people. On the contrary, he suggested that the government should first have the actual reserve position of the mineral resources assessed by independent consultants. He criticised the proposed coal policy as it emphasises energy security for 50 years, while in the same breath speaks of exporting it to a third country. How this policy does then reconcile two mutually exclusive objectives at the same time? He even went so far as to say that those who are on the side of exporting coal are guilty of treason. Members of the intelligentsia including geologists, economists, others concerned as well as politicians, who gave vent to their opinions, held identical views about the proposed coal policy of the government. They are all for producing coal for use at home, especially for generating power. Politicians, especially those belonging to the leftist camp, drew an analogy between Nigeria and a future Bangladesh that has depleted its mineral resources thoughtlessly. It is worthwhile to mention here that Nigeria in the past had leased out a big portion of their hydrocarbon reserves to foreign companies without having a foolproof strategy about the deal.
Anyone keen on the developments in Africa, where Nature has been so lavish with its gifts, can see how those resources have often been squandered due to wrong policies pursued by the governments from time to time in the past with the connivance of foreign companies.
The argument that foreign companies were to a large measure responsible for depletion of natural resources in many countries should not also be the sole reason to be overly suspicious of any deal with foreign companies. That sounds too chauvinistic and even antiquated a notion in the present global context. Since it takes two to tango, the national governments that reached those deals with foreign firms are also to blame for the predicaments they have been through.
For a country like Bangladesh, which is poor in capital and technology, there is barely any scope to luxuriate in a kind of mindset that hates anything foreign. The politics of ultranationalism does not suit us, nor does it suit any sensible people. Bangladesh, of course, needs foreign capital and technology to exploit whatever natural resources it possesses. The argument, therefore, has to be over how better the government can make the best of the deals with the foreign companies.
What is of prime importance here is that bureaucrats, experts and national leaders representing the government side are, firstly, well in the know of the business they are in. However, it has also to be ensured that those involved in the deal on the nation's side are also persons with proper perception and integrity in whose hands the interests of the country and the people are safe.
What cannot, however, be questioned here is that the nation's strategic resources lying underground have to be identified at first. Use of these resources needs an approach that is transparent to the people as well as pragmatic. Coal certainly falls under the category of strategic resources. Since the nation is facing an acute shortage of fuel and electricity, the focus should be on exploiting coal mainly for this purpose keeping an eye on the cleanness of the technology to be employed for the purpose. And, since coal is a source of energy, any decision on it needs also to be part of the nation's overall energy policy. No patriotic government can fail to take these basic issues into consideration while devising its policies on strategic mineral resources.
The crucial resources on which the economies of the world, whether big or small, developed or developing, depend are what mother nature still preserves in her bosom in the form of various kinds of mineral ores. Of all the underground resources, hydrocarbon is enjoying the most favoured status since the modern engine-driven civilisation started its journey. But these natural resources are not equally distributed among all the countries of the world. Blessed are the countries on the earth that have huge quantities of mineral resources under the surface of the landmass within their respective national boundaries. At least that has been the dominant view of the richness or otherwise of a country since long.
In fact, existence of different types of mineral resources beneath the earth was once the main yardstick to measure whether a country is rich or poor. Still today, people are wont to say that Bangladesh is a poor country, because we have few reserves of mineral deposit. Though such assessment of a country's economic worth is hardly relevant in today's context, still the import of mineral resources in a modern-day economy cannot be overemphasised. Even then, there are some countries like Japan and Singapore in the world that have reached the pinnacle of economic advancement despite the fact that they are not gifted with any valuable natural resources underground. Japan, however, has the most vital resource that other countries envy. It is their people. Here, however, it is the quality of the Japanese people, or what in modern parlance one would also like to call human resource and not their number or size that is being emphasised. The Japanese people are an extremely skilled and innovative lot. This is why they achieved so many miracles, whereas many of their counterparts, notwithstanding their adequate natural and mineral resources, have failed to make their mark so fast on the economic map of the world.
Returning to our own case, compared to Japan, Bangladesh is a rather lucky nation in that it is not totally deprived of the gifts of nature. We have sufficient quantities of gas and coal reserves. What is more, Bangladesh has also a huge reserve of human resource.
Unfortunately, even with all such potentials, Bangladesh is, as it were, trundling along with its burden of population along the path of growth. The issue has been discoursed upon in this column more than once to put in plain words as to how as a nation we are yet to chart out a viable growth path and tap the country's natural and human potentials most efficiently and gainfully.
In a recent roundtable titled 'National coal policy: present context,' experts have drawn the attention of the government, which is now busy waging a crusade against corruption, to the nation's mineral resources policy. The main theme of the roundtable was the government's coal policy. The experts at the discussion were against the export of coal and held the view that the government should not be in an unnecessary haste to devise a coal policy. Rather it should take time to think of a coal policy that would serve the national interest best. It may be recalled here that in order for its extraction and use, the first draft policy on coal was framed in 2005. Meanwhile, two years have passed and the policy under consideration has gone through revisions or editions for six times. Strangely though, the sixth draft was also not the final one, since another was framed in June this year, informed Nuruddin Mahmud Kamal, former chairman of the Power development Board (PDB), blaming it on the tardiness of the bureaucracy, which he alleged was working to surrender country's mineral resources to the foreign companies. Kamal made this comment while presenting his keynote paper at the discussion.
The discussants at the roundtable held that all these changes or revisions in the draft coal policy did hardly serve any useful purpose for the nation. The debates raged over whether the coal would be extracted through underground or open pit mining.
Nuruddin Mahmud Kamal alluded to Phulbari, which was a scene of violent and bloody public protest against open pit mining in a not-too-distant past. So he questioned, why are the bureaucrats again encouraging the incumbent government to go for open pit mining at that place which is so unpopular to the local people. On the contrary, he suggested that the government should first have the actual reserve position of the mineral resources assessed by independent consultants. He criticised the proposed coal policy as it emphasises energy security for 50 years, while in the same breath speaks of exporting it to a third country. How this policy does then reconcile two mutually exclusive objectives at the same time? He even went so far as to say that those who are on the side of exporting coal are guilty of treason. Members of the intelligentsia including geologists, economists, others concerned as well as politicians, who gave vent to their opinions, held identical views about the proposed coal policy of the government. They are all for producing coal for use at home, especially for generating power. Politicians, especially those belonging to the leftist camp, drew an analogy between Nigeria and a future Bangladesh that has depleted its mineral resources thoughtlessly. It is worthwhile to mention here that Nigeria in the past had leased out a big portion of their hydrocarbon reserves to foreign companies without having a foolproof strategy about the deal.
Anyone keen on the developments in Africa, where Nature has been so lavish with its gifts, can see how those resources have often been squandered due to wrong policies pursued by the governments from time to time in the past with the connivance of foreign companies.
The argument that foreign companies were to a large measure responsible for depletion of natural resources in many countries should not also be the sole reason to be overly suspicious of any deal with foreign companies. That sounds too chauvinistic and even antiquated a notion in the present global context. Since it takes two to tango, the national governments that reached those deals with foreign firms are also to blame for the predicaments they have been through.
For a country like Bangladesh, which is poor in capital and technology, there is barely any scope to luxuriate in a kind of mindset that hates anything foreign. The politics of ultranationalism does not suit us, nor does it suit any sensible people. Bangladesh, of course, needs foreign capital and technology to exploit whatever natural resources it possesses. The argument, therefore, has to be over how better the government can make the best of the deals with the foreign companies.
What is of prime importance here is that bureaucrats, experts and national leaders representing the government side are, firstly, well in the know of the business they are in. However, it has also to be ensured that those involved in the deal on the nation's side are also persons with proper perception and integrity in whose hands the interests of the country and the people are safe.
What cannot, however, be questioned here is that the nation's strategic resources lying underground have to be identified at first. Use of these resources needs an approach that is transparent to the people as well as pragmatic. Coal certainly falls under the category of strategic resources. Since the nation is facing an acute shortage of fuel and electricity, the focus should be on exploiting coal mainly for this purpose keeping an eye on the cleanness of the technology to be employed for the purpose. And, since coal is a source of energy, any decision on it needs also to be part of the nation's overall energy policy. No patriotic government can fail to take these basic issues into consideration while devising its policies on strategic mineral resources.