Potentialities of Bangladesh-Myanmar relations
Friday, 10 October 2008
Syed Fattahul Alim
Myanmar is Bangladesh's closest Southeast Asian neighbour. The two peoples also have close cultural link since time immemorial. During the British colonial period, Myanmar (the then Burma) was an affluent society. At that time, many people from our part of the Indian subcontinent would go to Myanmar in search of jobs and business. Many of them did even marry local girls and settle there. After the partition of the Indian subcontinent and departure of the British colonialists from this part of the world, the level of communications between the two peoples gradually dropped off. Meanwhile, Myanmar, too, had gone into a kind of self-withdrawal from the rest of the world, even from its closest neighbours. In the course of time, the later generations of this country grew quite unaware of this big eastern neighbour, which was once an Eldorado for the fortune hunters of the Indian subcontinent.
To all appearances, the era of isolation is going to be over at least between Bangladesh and Myanmar. The visit to Dhaka by a 55-member high-powered Myanmar government delegation led by the second man of the present ruling circle and Vice-chairman of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), General Maung Aye may well herald the beginning of a new era of communion between the two close neighbours.
Bangladesh's relationship with Myanmar should be considered from a strategic point of view. It is not only our gateway to Southeast Asia, it also connects us with another Asian giant, China. At the moment, there is already a proposal to build a road link between China and Bangladesh through Myanmar. In fact, Myanmar holds out a huge prospect for Bangladesh for expanding its economic and cultural relationship to other eastern and Southeast Asian neighbours. But before utilising this potential in Bangladesh's favour, what is at the moment necessary is to increase the existing volume of trade and commerce between the two countries.
What is the existing volume of business between Bangladesh and Myanmar at the moment? According to bdnews, last year Bangladesh exported goods worth US$ 5 million to Myanmar, whereas the latter exported its products worth US$ 100 million (this amount is only 1.3 per cent of the total volume of Myanmar's export, which is around US$ 9.8 billion) to Bangladesh. Compared to this, Bangladesh's total volume of export to different countries of the world is still higher than that of Myanmar. But when it comes to its export to Myanmar, the ratio with our total volume of export cuts a very sorry figure. Considering both ways, the total volume of the trade between the two countries is very poor in view of the size of the economies and populations of the two next-door neighbours. But again, even for such small size of the bilateral trade, Bangladesh's share is ridiculously small. The situation is totally unacceptable, given the fact that there is high demand for various Bangladeshi manufactured goods including construction materials, pharmaceutical products, leather goods, cosmetics and engineering products in that country.
The good news is that the two countries have already signed an agreement to remove one of the barriers to smoother trade, the problem of double taxation. The business leaders of the two countries have also identified other areas such as stringent visa regime, lack of direct shipping line, poor road and air link between Dhaka and Yangon, lack of direct banking facilities, etc which are acting as deterrent to the growth of trade and commerce between Bangladesh and Myanmar. Against this backdrop, both the governments should work in earnest to remove these hindrances to business within the shortest possible time.
However, the government-to-government understanding is but the first step towards removing the impediments to enhanced trade and commerce. The second step is the increased people to people contact in every areas of endeavour. The business entrepreneurs of the two countries must exchange more visits to further open up the opportunities existing in this respect. On this score, Bangladesh government, especially its diplomatic mission in Yangon, must take a proactive role by way of organising trade fairs in that country where various Bangladeshi products and services may be put on display. The cooperation in the areas of culture and education should be further expanded through organising more exchange visits. In the sphere of education, Bangladesh government can encourage students from Myanmar to study in Bangladesh through extending facilities like stipends for them. It has to be borne in mind that education is the most important vehicle for enhancing cultural and economic relations between nations and peoples.
Apart from trade and commerce as usual, there are other strategic areas from which Bangladesh can draw benefits from enhanced level of cooperation between the two countries. Food is one such area. Bangladesh's recent experience with its drive to import food from different food surplus countries including the next-door neighbour is still fresh in memory. So, it is time to look for a more dependable source of food grains in times of crisis. In this context, it is heartening to note that the Myanmar government has agreed to export some 100, 000 tons of rice to Bangladesh every year. Since Myanmar is a food surplus nation, Bangladesh can depend on this close neighbour for continuation of this arrangement for an indefinite period in the future.
Another strategic area of cooperation was importing gas from Myanmar to meet Bangladesh's growing deficit in this sector. But such hope has been dashed for the time being by the Myanmar's energy minister himself. Myanmar minister admitted to its helplessness in this respect as it has already committed its available gas reserves to Thailand, China and India. There is, however, a flicker of hope from its gas fields near Bangladesh's border. However, when production of gas would start from those fields after their exploration, Bangladesh will still have to face tough competition from other countries to get any access to that resource, the Myanmar minister concerned informed.
Granted the prospect of direct supply of gas from Myanmar or production of fertiliser using the gas from that country with the purpose of re-exporting to Myanmar is no more a feasible proposition. But still Bangladesh can draw on the river resources of Myanmar to produce hydroelectricity for its use in Bangladesh. And it is a welcome gesture from the Myanmar government that it has proved to be very positive in this respect. So, Bangladesh should not waste the opportunity to explore the prospect of building a hydropower project in the river bordering the two countries and produce electricity from there to meet the acute power shortage at home.
It is hoped that the government to government level exchange between Bangladesh and Myanmar will continue and gather further pace after this visit by the high-powered government delegation from Yangon. Bangladesh government will have to play a more proactive role in this regard to pave the way for business entrepreneurs and the standard-bearers of other areas of human endeavour to follow suit.
It is vital that Bangladesh has to be more proactive to reach out to Myanmar or to the other next-door neighbours or even further beyond. It is the precondition of survival, let alone for our further growth. Such question arises, because we have already been outpaced by many of our Southeast and South Asian neighbours. They have stolen a march on us, while we remained busy bickering over who are the real champions of history or the struggles waged in the past for what the politicians claim to be people's cause. If truth be told, to all intents and purposes, we are yet to overcome those fault-lines in our national psyche.
At this moment we are still at a vantage point so far as the economic position of Bangladesh vis-à-vis that of Myanmar is concerned. But this relative advantage for Bangladesh will be short-lived unless we are all out to improve our situation.
It has to be kept in mind that Myanmar had so far remained in a state of political hibernation from the rest of the world. But it has started to break the cocoon that it had spun around itself so long. And once it settles its scores with its own past, there is no reason it would look back further. If Bangladesh fails to increase its own pace, then it will only contribute to the past history of failures and re-enactment of the old tragedy of its being outdone by its erstwhile peers. Bangladesh must do everything in its might to avoid such consequences again in the future.
Myanmar is Bangladesh's closest Southeast Asian neighbour. The two peoples also have close cultural link since time immemorial. During the British colonial period, Myanmar (the then Burma) was an affluent society. At that time, many people from our part of the Indian subcontinent would go to Myanmar in search of jobs and business. Many of them did even marry local girls and settle there. After the partition of the Indian subcontinent and departure of the British colonialists from this part of the world, the level of communications between the two peoples gradually dropped off. Meanwhile, Myanmar, too, had gone into a kind of self-withdrawal from the rest of the world, even from its closest neighbours. In the course of time, the later generations of this country grew quite unaware of this big eastern neighbour, which was once an Eldorado for the fortune hunters of the Indian subcontinent.
To all appearances, the era of isolation is going to be over at least between Bangladesh and Myanmar. The visit to Dhaka by a 55-member high-powered Myanmar government delegation led by the second man of the present ruling circle and Vice-chairman of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), General Maung Aye may well herald the beginning of a new era of communion between the two close neighbours.
Bangladesh's relationship with Myanmar should be considered from a strategic point of view. It is not only our gateway to Southeast Asia, it also connects us with another Asian giant, China. At the moment, there is already a proposal to build a road link between China and Bangladesh through Myanmar. In fact, Myanmar holds out a huge prospect for Bangladesh for expanding its economic and cultural relationship to other eastern and Southeast Asian neighbours. But before utilising this potential in Bangladesh's favour, what is at the moment necessary is to increase the existing volume of trade and commerce between the two countries.
What is the existing volume of business between Bangladesh and Myanmar at the moment? According to bdnews, last year Bangladesh exported goods worth US$ 5 million to Myanmar, whereas the latter exported its products worth US$ 100 million (this amount is only 1.3 per cent of the total volume of Myanmar's export, which is around US$ 9.8 billion) to Bangladesh. Compared to this, Bangladesh's total volume of export to different countries of the world is still higher than that of Myanmar. But when it comes to its export to Myanmar, the ratio with our total volume of export cuts a very sorry figure. Considering both ways, the total volume of the trade between the two countries is very poor in view of the size of the economies and populations of the two next-door neighbours. But again, even for such small size of the bilateral trade, Bangladesh's share is ridiculously small. The situation is totally unacceptable, given the fact that there is high demand for various Bangladeshi manufactured goods including construction materials, pharmaceutical products, leather goods, cosmetics and engineering products in that country.
The good news is that the two countries have already signed an agreement to remove one of the barriers to smoother trade, the problem of double taxation. The business leaders of the two countries have also identified other areas such as stringent visa regime, lack of direct shipping line, poor road and air link between Dhaka and Yangon, lack of direct banking facilities, etc which are acting as deterrent to the growth of trade and commerce between Bangladesh and Myanmar. Against this backdrop, both the governments should work in earnest to remove these hindrances to business within the shortest possible time.
However, the government-to-government understanding is but the first step towards removing the impediments to enhanced trade and commerce. The second step is the increased people to people contact in every areas of endeavour. The business entrepreneurs of the two countries must exchange more visits to further open up the opportunities existing in this respect. On this score, Bangladesh government, especially its diplomatic mission in Yangon, must take a proactive role by way of organising trade fairs in that country where various Bangladeshi products and services may be put on display. The cooperation in the areas of culture and education should be further expanded through organising more exchange visits. In the sphere of education, Bangladesh government can encourage students from Myanmar to study in Bangladesh through extending facilities like stipends for them. It has to be borne in mind that education is the most important vehicle for enhancing cultural and economic relations between nations and peoples.
Apart from trade and commerce as usual, there are other strategic areas from which Bangladesh can draw benefits from enhanced level of cooperation between the two countries. Food is one such area. Bangladesh's recent experience with its drive to import food from different food surplus countries including the next-door neighbour is still fresh in memory. So, it is time to look for a more dependable source of food grains in times of crisis. In this context, it is heartening to note that the Myanmar government has agreed to export some 100, 000 tons of rice to Bangladesh every year. Since Myanmar is a food surplus nation, Bangladesh can depend on this close neighbour for continuation of this arrangement for an indefinite period in the future.
Another strategic area of cooperation was importing gas from Myanmar to meet Bangladesh's growing deficit in this sector. But such hope has been dashed for the time being by the Myanmar's energy minister himself. Myanmar minister admitted to its helplessness in this respect as it has already committed its available gas reserves to Thailand, China and India. There is, however, a flicker of hope from its gas fields near Bangladesh's border. However, when production of gas would start from those fields after their exploration, Bangladesh will still have to face tough competition from other countries to get any access to that resource, the Myanmar minister concerned informed.
Granted the prospect of direct supply of gas from Myanmar or production of fertiliser using the gas from that country with the purpose of re-exporting to Myanmar is no more a feasible proposition. But still Bangladesh can draw on the river resources of Myanmar to produce hydroelectricity for its use in Bangladesh. And it is a welcome gesture from the Myanmar government that it has proved to be very positive in this respect. So, Bangladesh should not waste the opportunity to explore the prospect of building a hydropower project in the river bordering the two countries and produce electricity from there to meet the acute power shortage at home.
It is hoped that the government to government level exchange between Bangladesh and Myanmar will continue and gather further pace after this visit by the high-powered government delegation from Yangon. Bangladesh government will have to play a more proactive role in this regard to pave the way for business entrepreneurs and the standard-bearers of other areas of human endeavour to follow suit.
It is vital that Bangladesh has to be more proactive to reach out to Myanmar or to the other next-door neighbours or even further beyond. It is the precondition of survival, let alone for our further growth. Such question arises, because we have already been outpaced by many of our Southeast and South Asian neighbours. They have stolen a march on us, while we remained busy bickering over who are the real champions of history or the struggles waged in the past for what the politicians claim to be people's cause. If truth be told, to all intents and purposes, we are yet to overcome those fault-lines in our national psyche.
At this moment we are still at a vantage point so far as the economic position of Bangladesh vis-à-vis that of Myanmar is concerned. But this relative advantage for Bangladesh will be short-lived unless we are all out to improve our situation.
It has to be kept in mind that Myanmar had so far remained in a state of political hibernation from the rest of the world. But it has started to break the cocoon that it had spun around itself so long. And once it settles its scores with its own past, there is no reason it would look back further. If Bangladesh fails to increase its own pace, then it will only contribute to the past history of failures and re-enactment of the old tragedy of its being outdone by its erstwhile peers. Bangladesh must do everything in its might to avoid such consequences again in the future.