From the earliest records available, it is clear we have a tradition of buying our Qurbani animals in the "haat" (informal market run privately) than from government-sponsored arrangements, just as the "konar dokaan" (corner store) exposes a business instinct so much at odds with the socialism we have preached and practised (through public sector enterprises) throughout our history. In short, private investment of the family-owned type dots that tradition more than public investment. It is clearly behind the steering wheel of the liberalised/globalised contemporary context today, yet also the unabashed springboard of human and environmental exploitation. Because of the proverbial bad apple in any bunch (of anything), one practical remedy would be to have enough "good" apples to drive out the "bad", thus reverting the mistaken dictum dubbed Gresham's Law.
Sticking with the Qurbani anecdote for just a little longer, we also noted how, as soon as sales were being concluded, four state-run banks quickly increased the funds available for purchasing leather from Taka five billion in 2014 to Taka seven billion this year (Janata: 2.5 billion, Sonali: 1.95, Rupali: 1.35, and Agrani: 1.2), taking the lead from private banks, such as BASIC Bank, National Bank and City Bank, among those that made immediate offers. The point should be clear: public investment is not to be downsized or eliminated. We need both, and only competitive practices will determine the survivors, a thought much in keeping with the "corporate social responsibility' (CSR) notion articulately attributed to Bangladesh Bank practices in this very newspaper (Hasnat Abdul Hye, September 24, 2015). Mr. Hasnat Abdul Hye even established "inclusive banking" as a Bangladeshi innovation, one that goes beyond monitoring/manipulating the monetary market to uplifting the social-base, and as cognizant of the needs "down there" as the yearnings "up there."
As a symptom of private investment, private banking has never had the door opened as widely as right now; indeed, at no other time has our need for them been as great as it currently is, driven not only by a robust generation-long growth-rate, but also an eagerness to demonstrate we are a worthy enough middle-income entrant, capable of climbing into the high-income bracket by mid-century if the private sector takes the lead. That demands more investment than all our entrepreneurs can muster. Foreign investment must enter through a wider front-door than ever before with fewer trip-wires, like hidden taxes, hollow transparency, and rampaging corruption, but most of all, to quash concerns and apprehensions that political quibbles, breakdowns, "hartals" (strikes) and "oborrodhs" (stoppages) determine/dictate businesses.
Both the last two years were some sort of a "dark-age" in mobilizing foreign investors precisely because of the political hangovers. Fortunately, more light is being seen in the investment tunnel this year, and if adroitly handled against stubborn stumbling-blocks, could catalyse our 50th birthday anniversary celebrations and mid-century hopes.
Our Business Council for International Understanding (BCIU) arranged for Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to engage with the heads of 27 global firms during her September 2015 U.S. visit, assuring them we "share the same set of values and ethos" ("freedom, democracy, human rights, inclusion, equality, pluralism, secularism"), and that our "planned and responsible industrialisation" includes opening 18 Special Economic Zones for foreign investors, and broadening the playing field to include "road, power, energy, tourism and hospitality, waste management and water supply," most emphatically the pharmaceuticals, shipbuilding, knowledge and ICT industries, and the vast Bay of Bengal resources. That was an astonishing agenda, befitting the Waldorf Astoria Hotel chain's reputation for breakthrough moments that goes back to 1993 when Mexico's Commerce and Industrial Development Minister Herminio Blanco announced Mexico's mind-boggling privatisation/liberalisation programme to convert a less developed country into a developed country. The North American Free Trade Agreement did just that subsequently. Many lessons can be drawn from that for us.
Hasina was instantly rewarded when SkyPower Global's President and Chief Executive Officer Kerry Adler offered $4.3 billion to develop a 2,000 megawatt solar power sector, with jobs for 42,000 people (no less in Tungipara, home of Bangabandhu), and receive a bonus of 1.5 million home lanterns for free. While many other business leaders engaged in the actual deliberations, suffice it to say this was the result of a protracted mobilising campaign to get global businesses to take a chance on Bangladesh (and continue to bite even amid distress signals like the frequent factory fires, and, more recently, the murder of foreign citizens). Yet, new directions were also being explored. Reflecting the "digitalised Bangladesh" dream of Hasina's son and ICT Adviser Sajeeb Ahmed Wazed Joy, the software shift has also mobilised globalised corporations, like Android, Blackberry, IPhones and Samsung Galaxy to come, invest, and reap $260 million worth of fortunes last year.
These are not irreversible developments. Political or religious problems can just as well derail every enthusiastic foreign investor. The need to cultivate them against all odds seems presently the most viable road to a staggering middle-income identity and high-income entry: they build the very infrastructures appropriate to this stage of our human development, and relevant to our own industrial transformation from a manufacturing hub into a service platform. Since SkyPower Global's offer goes a huge way to meet our $8.0 billion infrastructural need at this juncture, we can shift more attention to spreading such invitations and incentives while raising as much enthusiasm and allocations in an increasingly hungry foreign money market, given the saturation within China, constraints belittling the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) group, and oil-price collapse strangulation of other emergent/frontier economies. Since we have escaped these maladies, the infrastructural road to modernisation is flung open: bridges, ports, and tunnels are under construction, the key highways near completion, factories approach capacity production, energy-supply has been prioritised, and lowered interest-rates beckon both investors and consumers. These must open up new sectors, deepen old ones, and whittle away administrative bottlenecks to appeal to hungry businessmen abroad. Dare we proceed further? If we do not, all will have been in vain. If we do, the next article informs us of the key pitfalls remaining, followed by one exposing glimpses of a deserved nirvana.
The writer is Professor of International Relations, formerly in Universidad Iberoamerica, Mexico City.
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