Narrative of Bangladesh has changed for the better
The narrative of Bangladesh has changed from ‘basket case’ to a ‘development surprise’, but achieving sustainable socioeconomic progress in future will prove to be increasingly difficult without huge changes in the current governance environment, said noted economist Wahiduddin Mahmud.
“The experience of successful developing economies shows that sustained progress can be achieved only with a governance system based on strong state institutions and in-built mechanisms to ensure efficiency and accountability at all levels of state machinery,” Mahmud said at the 5th SANEM Annual Economists’ Conference (SAEC) yesterday.
This applies irrespective of whether the ruling regime is autocratic or dominated by one major political party or is based on multi-party democracy, Mahmud said in his keynote speech.
The two-day event, organised by the South Asian Network for Economic Modelling (SANEM) at the BRAC Centre Inn, was inaugurated by Planning Minister MA Mannan.
While ruling regimes are obliged to seek legitimacy through the delivery of their many welfare promises, this is done within the limits of an adverse governance environment, characterised by widespread corruption and patronage politics, said Mahmud, a former economics professor at the University of Dhaka.
Bangladesh is now poised to graduate from the least-developed country bracket.
The overall governance environment may barely be enough to cope with this transition but it may ultimately prove to be a barrier to modernisation, global integration and poverty reduction.
Managing a well-functioning globally integrated economy requires a governance system that is based on professionally competent and well-sourced government agencies that can identify and analyse problems, work out solutions and monitor implementation promptly and with enough information.
He went on to state that there is no excuse for failing to reach international standards in aspects such as air traffic control.
Citing the socioeconomic gains that Bangladesh has achieved, he also said that a number of the country’s accomplishments such as decreased cases of diarrhoea was achieved by adopting low-cost solutions.
However, continued progress may increasingly depend on larger public social spending and improved service delivery systems.
Mahmud, now chairman of the Economic Research Group, Dhaka, also spoke about unethical practices.
There are large-scale maleficent activities driven by illegal economic gains.
He cited the stock market scam or the wilful defaulting of bank loans, which are beginning to shake the confidence of depositors in financial institutions.
Money laundering occurs as a result of capital flight or unlawful grabbing of land.
These activities are perpetrated by a certain influential coterie of elites, who are usually the beneficiaries of patronage politics.
“Such wrongdoings may not be considered as signs of ethical degradation of society at large.”
This culture of patronage politics makes governance reforms all the more difficult and also directly harms the pace and quality of economic growth.
If leading political and economic entrepreneurs are the beneficiaries of the prevailing system of governance dysfunction riddled with unethical practices they have little incentive to change the system.
“Which is why, a big jolt is needed to correct the moral compass of the system,” Mahmud added.
The government is set to unveil their 8th Five Year Plan on July 1, Mannan said.
“We are also pursuing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the context of our own developments plan. The idea is to coordinate our own plans along with the SDG plans so that both can be implemented together and we are able to reach better synergy in our activities here,” he added.
SANEM Chairman Bazlul Haque Khondker chaired the event.
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