The Dhaka City Corp is a big defaulter, with grey projects, where the QC (quality control) is poor. Now meaningless projects are approved to make the city more beautiful. No disciplinary actions are ever announced in the media. Also, in the ADP, the mega projects are re-tendered several times, in a questionable manner, presumably to favour certain earmarked tenders. Then there is the tendency to amend the tender conditions midway. Political jealousies do not encourage continuity of projects approved by the preceding regime for implementation.

Now businessmen prefer to import goods available locally, to make more profit, through questionable documentation and palm greasing. The import policy is lax on import of non-essential items; and proper protective levies are not imposed to discourage wastage of precious foreign exchange, (imagine import of fruit juices from several thousand miles away, of which more than 90 per cent is water! Why not import the powder or raw materials, and do the processing locally?).

One big neighbour is capturing some vital sectors through exports, and the adverse trade balance is reaching more than one billion taka. No comment from the regulators! The bilateral talks are a sham, when there is no change of heart/approach.