Leveraging Bangladeshi diaspora
The file photo shows a Bangladeshi migrant worker returning home after losing his job in the Middle East. Remittance flows primarily from migrant workers in the Middle East, Europe and the US have been one of the standout successes of the country's economic development and continue to make an invaluable contribution in excess of $12 billion per year (including unofficial flows).
The untapped opportunities in more effectively engaging Bangladesh's large diaspora have been a subject I have covered in previous columns. In this article I wanted to discuss the launch of the BEI-AT Capital diaspora programme in the UK recently as well as an encouraging practical example of the potential benefits of leveraging our professional NRBs (non-resident Bangladeshis) during the prime minister's recent trip to New York.
Remittance flows primarily from migrant workers in the Middle East, Europe and the US have been one of the standout successes of our economic development and continue to make an invaluable contribution in excess of $12 billion per year (including unofficial flows). There is little doubt in my mind that this can be expanded further with more focused skill development programmes and this appears to be a priority for the new government and was highlighted in the recent successful conference on remittances in Dhaka organised by Scholars Bangladesh.
But we believe that there are important objectives beyond maximising the volume of remittances. Rather we focus on developing a strategy to unlock the hidden potential of the Bangladeshi diaspora in areas such as knowledge transfer and greater FDI (foreign direct investment). We have produced a detailed report titled “Beyond Remittances: A Strategy to Leverage the Bangladeshi Diaspora” that surveys both the academic literature and also the critical features of the most successful diaspora programmes from countries like India, China, Vietnam and the Philippines.
Some keys to success for Bangladesh to replicate the effectiveness of its diaspora strategy include:
1. Having a strong home country institution to facilitate diaspora exchanges with a comprehensive global database of NRBs both individually and groups.
2. Ensuring engagement is mutually beneficial to both NRBs and the home country. This will entails ensuring that NRBs have not only attractive investment opportunities but confidence and clarity on issues like repatriation and sufficient knowledge to make informed investment decisions.
3. Host governments and the multilateral agencies can play an important role in both funding and facilitating the growth of vibrant diaspora networks.
There is a regular stream of NRB groups from Europe and North America visiting Dhaka and Sylhet that features prominently in the Bangladeshi media. But the translation of such trips into a substantial number of new investment projects, or having a sustained and ongoing impact and interface with the Bangladesh economy appears to be lacking. It might be argued that the missing link is an effective diaspora platform within Bangladesh to leverage the NRB groups and networks globally.
In this context, Bangladesh Enterprise Institute (BEI) and Asian Tiger Capital, with the support of the UK Department for International Development (DFID), launched its UK diaspora programme at a Bangladesh-British Chamber of Commerce (BBCC) event on September 23 in London. It was attended by over 175 people with BEI President Farooq Sobhan and me outlining the key aspects of our programme which are as follows:
1. Eight workshops/seminars will be held in the UK over the next 12 months jointly with NRB groups both in London and across the country to encourage the British citizens of Bangladeshi origin to share their knowledge and skills and contribute to the economical transformation of Bangladesh. A further four workshops will be held in Dhaka at BEI, one per quarter. This will include relevant government officials and representatives of Bangladeshi business. The first seminar will coincide with the BBCC/UK Department of Trade and Industry visit in November 2009.
2. The creation of a database of British citizens with Bangladeshi origin, who are occupying key positions and can contribute transfer of knowledge and know-how with their name, addresses and occupation.
3. A website, NRBVoice.org, to be developed with a web-based newsletter covering the economy, the stock market and NRB advocacy issues which will be publicised within Bangladesh as well as among the NRBs globally.
A number of leading British NRBs spoke at the BBCC event and what really struck me was their passion and commitment as well as practical suggestions about how best NRBs can work with the Bangladesh government and the country's private sector to accelerate Bangladesh's economic development. Bajloor Rashid, president of the Bangladesh Caterers Association (BCA), made a number of specific recommendations including the need to set joint investment to establish training centres both in the UK and Bangladesh for restaurant workers. Secondly, he suggested a joint working group be set up with Bangladesh government such as All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on FDI and an APPG on NRB to ensure that safeguards and implemented policies remain constant.
He felt this can also then provide an avenue for consultation and direct involvement between the UK and Bangladesh that would go a long way to build confidence of NRB to participate fully in Bangladesh's economic development. Iqbal Ahmed, chairman of Seamark, covered a broad range of themes, but one challenge he highlighted that resonated with a number of speakers and the audience was the need to ensure the next generation of NRBs who were born in the UK remain interested and engaged with Bangladesh.
Chairman SB Faruk and other BBCC directors should be strongly commended for the time, energy and resources they committed to making the seminar an effective launching pad for the diaspora programme. Overall, we were extremely encouraged by the genuine and broad-based enthusiasm of the NRB community in the UK to step up their level of support in Bangladesh's development not only in terms of investment flows, but also skill transfers, policy engagement and also the re-branding of Bangladesh.
On the latter, I have written in the past about NRBs being “Brand Agents” by providing more effective marketing of Bangladesh as an investment destination. In this context, the speech on September 23 by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to a significant number of senior Wall Street professionals was organised jointly by our new Ambassador to the UN Dr Momem, along with two finance NRBs, Nasim Ali of remittance business Transfast, and Haseeb Ahmeed of JP Morgan Chase, among others.
Their ability to leverage their own networks to ensure attendance of that level of seniority is evidence of leveraging the diaspora in action. We should expand this partnership between Bangladesh government and the diaspora via the Board of Investment and FBCCI in our future re-branding Bangladesh strategies. We look forward to working with the various UK NRB groups and indeed expanding the programme to the US and Continental Europe and remaining committed to unlocking the contribution of our diaspora to Bangladesh's economic development.
The writer is the managing partner at Asian Tiger Capital Partners and can be reached at [email protected].
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