Bangladesh's global trade has been rising steadily. In recent years there has been a jump in imports passing through the port of 25 per cent and of exports of 15 per cent. The number of feeder ships operating between Singapore and Chittagong has also risen from 29 to 47.

The port's infrastructure is simply not well developed enough to handle this volume of trade in a timely manner, and as a result, ships must queue up for days at a time to berth, adding $10,000 to $20,000 per day as the cost of sitting idle. This is one reason why the turn around time for global trade to and from Bangladesh is so slow and renders local businesses uncompetitive internationally and imported products expensive.

The government should have rectified this problem far sooner. It is imperative for the government to invest to develop infrastructure so that international trade is not hampered. The cost to the nation of this kind of crumbling and insufficient infrastructure is incalculable.

Not only is the problem insufficient investment in infrastructure, but also inefficiency and mismanagement when it comes to the port authorities (in this case) or other government functionaries in other cases of facilitating business.

Bangladesh will never achieve the truly robust economic growth necessary to pull the entire economy upwards if we continue to be hampered by sub-standard facilities and infrastructure and if the government cannot adequately provide the basic facilitating services needed.

The problem with the Chittagong port is a microcosm of the general insufficiency of government attention to the matter of infrastructure and capacity development. This short-sighted approach is hampering our global trading relations and helps create the impression that Bangladesh is not ready to compete on the world stage.