Any Bangladeshi visiting Europe and North America for a while or at least for a couple of days will pause and ponder over developed and beautiful cities there. They see no terrible traffic jams. They find roads neat and clean and all vehicles running down the streets with shiny outfit, shops and building arranged in such a way that there are enough space and trees. The arrangement of shops and buildings bring the charm both to minds and eyes. Shops are full of quality goods but with reasonable prices. There is no tension for formalin.
After spending a couple of days, the visitors come to know that majority of the people there have the ability to purchase goods from these nice shops. They have good houses to live in at least compared to those of our country. The same thing happened to this writer who travelled to the developed countries of the world like those in Europe and North America, Japan, South Korea and Singapore. It is certainly the dividend they are having from social and technological innovations, education and research. Here by the word 'innovation' we are referring not only to invention of something new but also adaptation to any innovation in their own ways in different sectors including education, manufacturing and service.
Innovations like steam engine, combustion engine, steel, electricity, electric light, transistors, printing press, antibiotics and others have accelerated development of Europe and North America. These innovations gave shape to industrial revolution since mid-18th to early 19th century in certain areas of Europe and North America, starting in Great Britain and followed by Belgium, Germany and France. These developed countries were agrarian in nature, producing and crops and maintaining farmlands. Each of these innovations put its impact on the society by bringing in changes in infrastructure development and attitude towards industrialisation. It is evident that in mid-18th and early 19th centuries they started to develop railway and large bridges to connect the whole country. Textile, shipbuilding and railway flourished in these regions.
Mechanisation of agriculture and manufacturing sector helped to boost productivity of workers. Higher productivity and thus increased income of workers stimulated consumer market and the whole economy. But this industrial development has not stopped there. They started manufacturing technology- oriented products like automobiles, aeroplanes, modes of faster transportation, skyscrapers and others. Industrialisation there took a high speed once computers were invented. We can see how robotics and electronics are giving the new edge to the industrial development.
The industrial advancement starting from primary to service sectors became the heart of socio-economic development of Europe and North America. Added to these were high quality education and research linked to industries, the society and human lives. It was never possible for them to move on from one stage to another unless they realised and developed their tertiary education with passage of time. Now they are enjoying the dividends of social and technological innovations, education and research in terms of higher quality of life.
In Bangladesh, one can easily realise that the country is at the early stage of industrialisation with a largely agrarian society. Like Europe and North America at their early stage of industrialisation, textile, shipbuilding, and agriculture are our major sectors. Our socio and economic conditions are also the same as those of the then Europe and North America.
To move from this early stage of industrialisation to the next stage with uniform advancement in social and economic conditions, we need to reform and re-structure our tertiary level education system with research facilities linked to industry, the society and human life. Our path would not be the same as those of developed countries as technological development is already in place for the next stage.
Like elsewhere in the industrialised and developed world, universities can play the role of catalysts in supporting innovative performance and productivity growth. In our country, there are many public and private universities. To create an effective and efficient linkage between industries and universities we can follow the following stages:
Firstly, a coordination cell consisting of relevant ministers, secretaries, professors, economic researchers and industrialists could be formed. The government will create a fund for functioning of the coordination cell.
Secondly, the coordination cell will launch a study to identify the potential firms of different sectors which are interested and have the need to invest in research and development. Then the potential areas of development would be identified for those selected firms. For an example, some TV and fridge manufacturing firms and textile factories could be identified based on their interest and need. The areas of improvement for TV and fridge manufacturing firms could be colour tube quality, sensors, compressors, robots for assembly line, machine language etc like some areas in textile and garments factories.
Thirdly, the cell will then commence another study to find out the potential technical universities based on the criteria like number of PhDs in relevant subjects, number and types of ongoing research programmes, research facilities, interests of teachers and students and potential of future expansion of research facilities.
Fourthly, if required, research facilities in the targeted universities have to be restructured in terms of installing new equipment, training of relevant teachers and students, purchasing of books, and establishment of linkages with other researchers of the developed world. Fund for this type of work initially will be provided jointly by university and the coordination cell.
Fifthly, a tripartite agreement among coordination cell, specific universities and firms needs to be signed. In the agreement, role of each party will be clearly mentioned.
The coordination cell will:
l Facilitate communication between university and firm,
l Propose to the government for preparing a policy so that universities and firms are encouraged for joint research,
l Provide partial money for developing research facilities and training for one time,
l Facilitate communication between local university with other researchers of developed countries, and
l Monitor joint research continuously.
It is also necessary to give the duration of agreement and the period of agreement review.
Sixthly, once the duration of tripartite agreement ends, the coordination cell, university and firm will review the achievements in terms of innovations.
Seventhly, based on joint research results, the coordination cell will propose to the relevant ministries about what kind of policy support is required, how this kind of joint research can be scaled up and what would be the sustainable mechanism.
These seven steps could be undertaken through a project under a relevant ministry where the coordination cell will be the apex body of the project. Policies like tax exemption of the firms which have research agreement with universities, budgetary support by the university grants commission to universities for such joint research, international fair on the outcome of joint research by the coordination cell under the relevant ministry, could be formulated.
Universities will be benefitted through these joint activities with industries in terms of access to state-of-the-art industrial equipment and project management skills.
If the culture of joint research continues in a sustainable way, it would help the industries to move forward rapidly in terms of higher productivity, manufacturing cost reduction, introduction of new products, and knowledgeable staff. Industries too can expand their businesses and move on to the other related sectors. Workers working in the firms will get higher salary.
Joint research between universities and industries will give maximum benefits to the society and the country. If industries reap the benefits, it will increase employment opportunities. Higher salaries of workers will stimulate the whole economy of Bangladesh. Once the purchasing power is increased, they will lead a better quality life.
On the other hand, joint research will create experts in different categories which will attract the multinational companies to invest in sectors like automobiles, machinery, spare parts etc. Eventually, this kind of investment will help the industrial sector to move on to the next level of industrialisation with manufacturing of high value-added export-oriented products. As we have seen in case of Europe and North America, each stage of changes in terms of industrialisation will bring big changes in living styles of the citizens in terms of better education, good transportation system, easy access to health facilities, higher income etc.
The writer, an industrial and production engineer, is working for development of garment sector in Bangladesh for the last eight years.
ripon06@gmail.com
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